The Underground NetBattlers
by RennyBanette
Summary: When MegaMan is gravely injured during a friendly battle, there's no way to fix him - or so they thought. A place called Nowhere City holds all the answers, and not just for MegaMan.
1. Chapter 1 - Prologue

Well, this is all cool . . .

Hello there! Honestly I never thought I'd get into this specific fandom, since I was pretty set on just the classic _MegaMan_ and _MegaMan X_ series, but then I started watching the _MegaMan NT Warrior_ anime and I decided that I wanted to know how different it is to the games themselves, and so I started watching a _Let's Play_ of _MegaMan Battle Network 1_ , _Battle Network 2_ , _Network Transmission_ , and I'm currently going through _Battle Network 3_.

So, uh, no spoilers please.

But yeah anyway, I didn't expect to get into this, but for some reason this fandom actually appeals to me more than the classic and _X_ series do. Maybe it's because _Battle Network_ is an RPG? I mean, my all-time favourite game series is _Pokemon_ , and that's pretty much one of the most well-known if not well-loved RPG game series on the planet.

Anyway, enough about me not expecting to get so into this series.

Welcome to my first-ever fic for the _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ fandom!

This fic doesn't take place in the anime or game world. Nor does it take place in the manga, mainly because I've never actually read it (I can't find it online, which sucks, cus I wanted to read it). It does, however, take place in a weird mishmash of the anime and game world.

Mishmash because the first thing I found from this series of _MegaMan_ was the anime, and it introduced various characters that never actually showed up in the games - such as the character Tory, who is IceMan's NetOp in the anime, but in the games IceMan's NetOp is Dr. Froid. I like Tory's character and I feel like he kinda adds in a bit of normal to the group of kids we have as main characters (among which is a crazy/lazy kid that gets into far too much trouble, a pink-haired piano girl, a child genuis, a kid who's apparently bigger than most adults, and also a two-toned albino).

So, Tory's in this fic because I like him. He's a cool kid. And not just because he's IceMan's NetOp.

But enough about how I'm adding in an anime-exclusive character, I'm also making the timeframe of this fic extremely vague. Since I can't find anything past _Axess_ online, and I have yet to finish watching _Battle Network 3_ and onwards, I feel like this is probably the best option.

I won't mention anything that's happened in the anime (unless for a specific purpose, like maybe someone's remembering something or they're making fun of someone else, etc.) or the games (unless for the same reasons mentioned before). The only characters who will show up are Lan, Maylu, Dex, Yai, Tory, Chaud, Dr. Hikari, and their NetNavis (does Lan's dad even have a NetNavi? I have yet to see him with one).

The rest, unless I put them in for a brief period of time (characters such as Masa come to mind, or Ms. Mari), basically won't be main characters. At best they'll be side characters who'll probably just show up once or twice, since the bulk of this fic will take place in a fictional city that I created for the purposes of this fic.

Any other characters will, of course, be OCs - and there are quite a few. The main OCs will be introduced soon after the main canon characters get to my fictional city.

. . . Wow, I ended up monologuing by accident. But yeah anyway those're my plans.

Also, I'm taking some liberties with how NetNavis are made - the driving force of this fic didn't really come into being until I came up with a horrible scenario that pretty much demands the creation of data-bones for Navis, which may or may not be true since hey we don't actually know what they look like under their skin. They could look like robots for all we know.

But yeah, this is not a happy prologue. Get ready for some horrific images, although there's no blood (they're literally data, I'm pretty sure it's impossible for them to bleed, unless they bleed data or something).

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Lan and Dex were having a NetBattle, and Lan was, as usual, winning by a landslide.

At this point it wasn't even a trial for Lan to beat Dex, all he had to do was send MegaMan some good battle chips and boom, they pretty much won instantly, but Lan wasn't one to become complacent (MegaMan would probably disagree, but Lan would cheerfully ignore his Navi/twin brother in favour of beating down Dex's oversized ego). It wasn't that Lan was doing this just because it was easy, he just didn't want his skills to get dragged through the mud - a NetBattler's work was never easy, after all!

Lan could practically _see_ MegaMan's disapproving look, but thankfully MegaMan couldn't read his mind, so he could keep his slightly-egotistical thoughts to himself.

Something exploded on the PET's screen, and Lan quickly started paying attention again.

Apparently Dex had sent some Mini Bombs to GutsMan, but MegaMan, being MegaMan, had simply flipped over them and was now hiding on top of one of the floating blocks of data while GutsMan tried to flap away the resulting smoke.

"Hey, c'mon, I don't pay you to be a ninja!" Lan grinned.

MegaMan glanced at him. His faceplate was up and Lan couldn't see the lower half of his face, but his eyes were bright, so Lan was pretty sure he was grinning back. "You don't pay me at all," was the Navi's response.

"I give you battle chips."

"That's not payment, that's warmongering."

Lan had no idea what warmondering meant, but he was pretty sure that was an insult.

And then he didn't have time to respond to that, as GutsMan finally managed to get rid of the smoke and he was now looking around for MegaMan. On the park bench a few feet away from the edge of the fountain Lan was sitting on, Dex shouted encouragement to GutsMan.

They'd decided it was a better idea to keep their distance from each other while their Navis battled, because then neither could accuse the other of peeking at the other's PET and cheating. So far it was working out awesomely, but GutsMan wasn't doing so well now that MegaMan was hiding - which, Lan could tell, Dex was having trouble with as well.

After all, if GutsMan couldn't see MegaMan, then neither could Dex. And hopefully it would stay that way until MegaMan decided to strike, or until Lan came up with some awesome strategy that would take down GutsMan in one final blow.

"Any brilliant plans?" MegaMan asked him quietly. "If not, just send me a Widesword."

"I'll send a Shotgun," Lan decided, "and _then_ a Widesword. Hit him with the Shotgun first and then get onto another data block so Dex and GutsMan don't see you. Then sneak up on him and use the Widesword."

"What if you sent two Shotguns? Then I could snipe him."

"Ooooh, good idea!" Lan agreed. "Okay, here's the first one!"

He downloaded the battle chip and a Shotgun formed on MegaMan's right arm. The Navi shuffled forward until he was peering over the edge of the data block, aimed carefully, and then shot GutsMan when he wasn't looking in his general direction. As GutsMan bellowed in pain, MegaMan used the distraction as a chance to jump from one block to another, and then he jumped onto a third block that was almost on the other side of GutsMan.

"He's up there, get him!" Dex yelled excitedly, misjudging where MegaMan was - sure, he'd figured out where MegaMan had _been_ , but it didn't matter since he wasn't there anymore.

GutsMan threw out his Guts Hammer, hitting the side of the abandoned data block, and it fell to pieces.

"GUTS!" GutsMan shouted triumphantly, only to pause in confusion as he realised MegaMan wasn't in the rubble.

"Where is he!?" Dex yelped.

"I-I don't know!" GutsMan replied, turning around in circles, trying to figure out where the much smaller Navi was hiding. He'd figured out that MegaMan was probably still on a data block, since he obviously wasn't on the ground, but there were so many that there was no way GutsMan could break them all before MegaMan hit him again.

Lan sent MegaMan the second Shotgun chip. "Get ready to aim again," Lan said, fighting the urge to taunt Dex.

"Way ahead of you," MegaMan responded. Indeed, he was already over the edge, and the second Shotgun was now being aimed carefully at GutsMan's back.

MegaMan barely even paused before firing a second time, and once again there was a pained bellow from GutsMan, who spun around to glare in the general direction of where the shot had come from.

Only to yelp in surprise as MegaMan came flying out of his hiding place with a Widesword already formed on his arm.

The smaller Navi slashed at the arm that came up to deflect the attack, and then used that same arm to as a springboard to bounce off and away from GutsMan. The Widesword vanished as he flipped through the air, and he landed on one hand, pushed off, and then lightly bounced to his feet a good distance away from GutsMan. His faceplate flashed and withdrew back into his helmet, revealing the grin on his face.

"Yeah!" Lan cheered.

"No . . ." Dex moaned.

"You're gonna have to give up your dessert, Dex!" Lan called. Well, it was either that or have Dex do his homework for him, but honestly speaking, Dex was actually worse than Lan at homework, so he chose dessert as the prize.

"No way!" Dex snapped back, glaring at Lan. "We're gonna win this!" He looked at his PET and the glare became a determined frown. "GutsMan, my dessert's on the line, don't lemme down!"

"You got it, Dex!" GutsMan agreed. He formed a Guts Hammer on one hand and raised it up, then brought it down so fast that Lan was actually surprised.

MegaMan, on the other hand, apparently couldn't be taken by surprise. He simply jumped before the Guts Hammer connected with the ground and kicked off one data block and jumped onto the top of another while the ground shook below.

Oh well, so much for that.

And then Dex told GutsMan to start breaking the data blocks.

"Gah," Lan said, stunned for a moment, as GutsMan began directing his Guts Hammers at the blocks.

He started with the one that MegaMan had jumped onto for safety, and then started following MegaMan as he jumped and ran across the different blocks, smashing them to pieces as he went.

A couple of minutes and several dozen smashed blocks later, MegaMan was left stranded on top of a data block with no other blocks nearby to jump onto for safety, and GutsMan reared up for another Guts Hammer.

"Lan, I could do with some help here!" MegaMan yelped.

"I- uh-" Lan had no idea what to do. He'd only had two Shotgun chips and he'd only brought along a bunch of basic Swords, a couple of Wideswords, and a few other battle chips that were good for battling but not so good for getting his Navi out of a situation like this one.

Agh, this was what he got for getting cocky!

GutsMan hit the data block and as it crumbled to pieces under his feet, MegaMan jumped off - but he misjudged his jump because of the crumbling data block pieces, slipped in mid-air, and he landed awkwardly.

Right behind GutsMan.

Who promptly spun around, hand clenched into a fist, and Lan shouted a quick warning before MegaMan got squished. He just barely avoided being hit, and the punch drove through the ground and smashed the floor (Lan shuddered at what could've happened if _MegaMan_ had been hit). GutsMan came after him again with surprising speed, and it was suddenly all MegaMan could do to keep from getting pummeled into the ground.

He managed to deflect a few but mostly just dodged, jumping and ducking and backing away the entire time.

Meanwhile, Lan was going through his chip folder, trying to see if he had anything that could help - a Mini Bomb probably wouldn't be too much help here, since GutsMan was too close for one to work, and a sword would probably just get smashed before MegaMan would get a chance to use it. And going for the basic Mega Buster was practically suicide at this point, since the charged shot would take too long to build up to (and MegaMan needed to concentrate to do it, which he couldn't do with GutsMan raining punches at him) and the standard shots were too weak to do any damage at all at this point.

Ooooh, they were up a creek here. This was not good at all.

Man, and it had all been going so well, too . . . This sucked. Did that mean he'd have to give Dex his dessert? Or, no, wait, Dex would probably make Lan do his homework for him. And he already had MegaMan nagging him to do his own, how bad would he get if he had _two_ sets of homework to do?

. . . Would Ms. Mari notice if he just copy-and-pasted everything?

Why, oh why, did he not bring any better chips?

"LAN!" MegaMan yelped.

Lan looked up from the folder in time to see GutsMan fling a punch that was so powerful it made MegaMan fly away even though it hadn't even connected. He gasped as MegaMan hit the ground hard a few metres away. For a few moments, all MegaMan could do was lay there on his back, gasping for air.

But it was in those few moments that GutsMan closed in, readying another punch that Lan was pretty sure would be just as powerful as the last one.

"Get up!" Lan warned him. "He's coming, get up now, you gotta get up!"

He could see Dex's grin from where he was sitting, but Lan forced himself to ignore his friend - currently his worst enemy, there was no doubt in his mind that Dex was gonna make him do his homework if _he_ won - and he focused on his best friend instead.

"Come on . . ." Lan encouraged him, as MegaMan slowly forced himself to stand up. He stumbled and almost fell over, tensing slightly, but then spotted GutsMan coming for him and straightened up-

-and then GutsMan hit him with an underhook punch that took him right off his feet.

MegaMan went flying, way further than he'd gone before, and when he finally came crashing down, he didn't get back up. But he hadn't been forced to jack out yet, so maybe there was still a chance to fight, if only Lan could figure out whether or not he'd brought some Recover chips.

"MegaMan!" Lan cried, even as he rummaged frantically through his folder. "Hey, you alright? C'mon buddy, speak to me!"

" _Kuh_ . . ."

Lan froze.

That . . . that hadn't sounded good at all. He looked up from his folder, at MegaMan, and he could've sworn at that moment all the blood in his body turned to ice.

MegaMan was still lying on the ground where he'd crashed, and he was trying to get back up, but for some reason he didn't seem to be able to move his legs at all - in fact, the entire lower half of his body seemed to be unresponsive. He was gasping and Lan could've sworn he heard him choke, too.

And worst of all was the flashing red WARNING message in the corner of the PET's screen, telling Lan that MegaMan's lower half had been severed and that he had to jack out _now_ otherwise he'd get deleted.

But he could see MegaMan's legs, they were right there, why was the PET telling him-

MegaMan tried to heave himself up and he managed to drag his legs along the ground a little, and that simple action tore a raw, horrible scream out of his mouth.

Oh.

Worn out, MegaMan dropped down and that tore another scream out of him. Lan saw GutsMan coming towards him, but he paused when he heard the screams, looking confused and extremely worried.

Dex, on the other hand, didn't appear to think anything had gone wrong. " _Yeah_!" he cheered, pumping his fist. "I'm not giving up my dessert tonight, woo! Go GutsMan, finish him off!"

"But- but Dex-" GutsMan said, turning to look at his NetOp.

"No buts, c'mon, we finally got a chance to beat these guys and we're gonna _take it_!"

"Dex!" Lan shouted, standing up. "Call off GutsMan! Something's wrong with MegaMan!"

"Shut up Lan, you're just sore cus we're finally gonna beat-"

"IT'S NOT THAT!" Lan yelled, and Dex jerked back, surprised. "GutsMan's punch did something to him, there's something wrong, he's really hurt, we need to stop-"

"So you're giving up?" Dex grinned triumphantly.

"Dex, this has gone way too far, just call off GutsMan!"

"Say you give up, and I'll call him off. Go on, say it!"

Dex didn't get it. Why didn't he get it? This was about the stupid battle anymore, MegaMan had been hurt really badly, they needed to stop _now_. Why didn't Dex _understand_?

"Dex, maybe we should-" GutsMan began hesitantly.

"Hit him with a Guts Hammer," Dex ordered.

"But Dex-"

"Hit him!"

"Dex-"

"HIT HIM!"

GutsMan looked at his NetOp for a moment, and then he nodded reluctantly. He turned to MegaMan, who had raised his head to watch, and formed his fist into a Guts Hammer. The smaller Navi's eyes widened, and he tried to drag himself away, but every movement of his legs caused him extreme pain and he started screaming again.

That finally seemed to make Dex pause.

"What . . . what's the matter with him?" he asked, glancing at Lan.

"I _don't know_!" Lan burst out angrily. "But if you don't call off GutsMan right now, he'll get hurt _even worse_! DAMMIT, DEX, THIS ISN'T A BATTLE ANYMORE!"

Dex stared at Lan for what seemed like hours, and then he finally reacted.

"GutsMan, stop!" he exclaimed.

GutsMan got rid of his Hammer in record time, and he hurried over to MegaMan, who panicked and screamed again - but not from pain. GutsMan stepped back like he'd been stung.

But Lan didn't care about that. All he could think as he jacked MegaMan out of the battlefield was - get him to Dad. Dad could help. Dad had always fixed MegaMan before. He could do the same thing now. There was nothing to worry about, MegaMan was in a lot of pain right now but Dad could fix that.

And yet, even as he ran from the park and headed straight for SciLab, there was that nagging fear that Dad wouldn't be able to fix something like this.

 **OOOOOO**

So yeah, those there were the graphic images that I'd warned you guys about.

You'll find out exactly what happened in the next chapter when Lan gets MegaMan to Dr. Hikari, but for now, just live with the knowledge that GutsMan has probably done something utterly terrible to poor little MegaMan.

This is also where the 'taking liberties with how Navis are made' comes into play, since this plot starter here wouldn't be at all possible if MegaMan or any of the other Navis didn't have any bones, or whatever their equivalent of bones would be. Data-bones? Who knows.

But anyway, the only characters who show up in this chapter are Lan, MegaMan, Dex, and GutsMan, obviously. Everyone else'll come into this in the next chapter, so don't worry.

Bit of info here - my absolutely favourite character from this particular series is, of course, MegaMan. And anyone who knows me knows that I have a very bad habit of torturing my favourite characters, so the pain MegaMan is in right now is essentially due to him being my favourite.

Ironically I'm not exactly planning on having MegaMan or Lan be the main canon characters, but MegaMan's horrible injuries are the driving force of the plot, so I guess that counts.

Anyway, I wanna write the next chapter, so I'll end this AN here. Because I wanna write plot.

Read and review!


	2. Chapter 2 - Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda

Say hello to the second chapter (although the first was a prologue it still counts as the first chapter, so yay) and in this one, we get to meet Lan's dad, Dr. Hikari, and find out exactly what happened and why MegaMan was/is in so much pain.

In case anyone's wondering, I don't hate Dex or GutsMan. It's just my opinion that, if Dex finally got a chance to one-up Lan and win a battle against him, he'd take the oppertunity and would probably not notice anything else until, well, you screamed it at him. I basically just chose Dex and GutsMan for this because they're Lan and MegaMan's second-biggest rivals (Chaud and ProtoMan are, obviously, the number one rivals, but they were nowhere to be found at the time). Also because GutsMan is the only Navi I can think of who may have the power needed to hurt MegaMan in the way I needed him to be hurt.

Dex will show up again and he'll be very, very sorry about all of it, I promise. I'm also hoping to write the rest of the characters as well.

Moving on.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"I can't do anything more than this, I'm sorry."

Lan stared at his dad in disbelief. After a moment of silence, he turned his gaze to MegaMan, who was lying vertically inside of a machine that looked like a large glass pod with some weird alien-saucer thing on the top and a base with a computer screen on the bottom, to which the PET was jacked into. Dad had explained what the glass pod was for, something to do with Navi reconstruction or whatever, but Lan had forgotten and he didn't care to remember, because he was too focused on MegaMan.

He didn't look like he was in any pain anymore - mainly because he was shut down, asleep, turned off, whatever the term was. He looked peaceful but all Lan could think about as he stared at the Navi were the horrible screams that had come from MegaMan as he had tried to drag himself away from GutsMan.

"You made him," Lan said, his voice sounding strangely flat and toneless to his ears. "That . . . doesn't that mean you should be able to fix him? Fix- fix whatever happened to him?"

"Lan, you have to understand, I _want_ to help him," Dad replied gently, glancing up from the computer he was working at. "If there was anything more I could do, if I could fix him more than this and make him better again, I would do it in a heartbeat. But the damage done to his spine . . . I don't know how to fix something as complex or as delicate as that. I may end up doing more harm than good if I attempt to repair him any further than this, I just don't have the knowledge. As it stands, this is the best I can do. He's not in pain anymore."

"But he can't walk."

Dad didn't reply for a moment.

" . . . No," Dad murmured, "he can't. The moment his spine broke, the PET registered his lower body as severed because, for all intents and purposes, it _was_ \- just not visibly. I can't imagine how much pain he was in then, but like I said, I've managed to do enough to make sure he's _not_ in any pain, but I hesitate to go any further because this kind of damage repair . . . It's beyond my capabilities. I'm sorry. He's your brother, and he's my son, and I can't . . . I . . ."

Lan dragged his eyes away from MegaMan's still frame and looked at his dad, who had hunched over the computer, shaking. Even from where Lan was standing he could see tears dripping down his dad's face.

"Dad . . ." Lan said quietly, sadly. He went over and wrapped his arms around his dad, and received a tight hug in return.

For several moments the two of them just stood there silently, and then Dad pulled away reluctantly, wiping his eyes.

"I'll call your mother," he said, straightening up. "She needs to know about this, too."

"Yeah," Lan agreed.

He watched his dad go, probably to find somewhere private - this wasn't the kind of news you'd tell someone in public, after all - and he turned back to looking at the Navi reconstruction pod.

"I . . ." Lan faltered, and then tried again. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have . . . I should've brought along better chips. I should've kept a closer eye on what was going on. I should've come up with some sort of strategy to counter it. I . . . I shouldn't have challenged Dex to that battle. This is all my fault and I . . ."

His voice broke.

"I'm sorry," he whispered. "I just want you to be alright."

He knew what MegaMan would say to that - it's not your fault, you couldn't have known how it would've turned out, there's no need to blame yourself. Yet Lan couldn't help it. He'd been an idiot, he'd gotten _complacent_ , _arrogant_ , and he'd underestimated Dex and GutsMan and this was _definitely_ his fault.

Lan was an idiot, and it took his best friend getting crippled because of him to see that.

After a minute of looking at MegaMan, he dragged himself over to a nearby chair and slumped down. He stared at his feet and wondered how his mom would react to this - would she hate him? She loved both of them even though MegaMan technically wasn't human and Lan was pretty much an idiot, but he couldn't imagine her wanting anything to do with him after she found out what he'd done to MegaMan.

Maybe he could ask Yai if he could use one of the hundred spare bedrooms in her mansion . . . but then maybe she'd hate him as well, and so would Maylu, and everyone else, too.

They'd all have to get in line behind him, then.

He had no idea how much time went by, but when his dad came back, he didn't react, not even when Dad started working on MegaMan again. Trying to see if he could do anything without screwing up the data, or something.

And what about MegaMan himself? How was he going to react when he woke up and found out he couldn't walk anymore?

However he reacted, Lan at least hoped it wouldn't be as bad as when his spine got broke. Those screams had been horrible and Lan just knew he'd be hearing them in his dreams for the rest of his life. But that was a good thing, wasn't it? Then he wouldn't forget that it was his fault this had happened, because if MegaMan was gonna suffer, then Lan should, too. It was only fair.

"Lan."

Dad was standing in front of him. He didn't know how long he'd been there. Lan looked up slowly, and Dad crouched in front of him.

"This isn't your fault, Lan," Dad said gently. "This was an accident, you understand?"

"An accident I could've prevented," Lan countered.

"Lan . . ."

"Please, Dad, I just . . . I'm sorry, but could you leave me alone for a while?" Lan felt horrible, saying that to his father, but he didn't want to hear this. He wanted to be alone with his thoughts, no matter how terrible they were.

Dad looked at him for a long moment, and then he nodded and went back to his computer, tapping away at the keyboard again. Apart from the occasional worried glance, he didn't try to approach Lan again. And Lan hated worrying his dad like this, especially when he was already worried about MegaMan, but he couldn't do this. Not right now. Maybe not ever, not unless MegaMan could be fixed, and . . . and that was . . . impossible.

 **oooo**

By the time his mom got to SciLab, Lan had relocated the chair to a corner. He was far away from the door and he was pretty sure no one could see him here, but he still had a good view of the reconstruction pod from where he was sitting. There'd been no change at all but he still looked, just in case something did happen.

Even though Lan's spot meant he was out of sight, Mom still found him anyway. Dad hadn't said anything or Lan would've heard them talking, but then he couldn't see Dad anymore either (a result of hiding in the corner), so maybe Dad had gestured in his general direction or something. Or maybe Mom just knew him really well.

"Hey," Mom said quietly. She sat on a metal box a couple of feet away.

While Lan wondered why she hadn't gone straight to her injured son and was instead dealing with the one who'd _caused_ the injury, she reached forward and gently petted his messy hair.

Lan spoke up after a moment of silence. "Mom, why . . ." He wanted to say 'why are you here instead of there', but he lost his nerve halfway through. He tried something else. "This is all my fault. I'm sorry. I . . . I'm a really bad person."

"You blame yourself, honey?" Mom asked sadly.

He waited for her to start telling him that it wasn't his fault, like Dad had done, but she surprised him.

"Maybe you're right," Mom said. Lan stared at her, wide-eyed. "I'm not playing the blame-game, Lan, but if _you_ want to blame yourself for this . . . I'm not going to tell you anything different, alright? I can't tell you what to think or feel."

"M-Mom . . . I . . ."

"But," his mom continued, as if he hadn't spoken, "if you really do think this is all your fault, and if you really do believe you're a bad person, then why not do what you can to make this better? Lan, do you know why criminals go to prison?"

What did that have to do with anything?

His question must've shown on his face, because Mom leaned forward a little and peered at him. "This isn't a trick question, Lan. Why do criminals go to prison?"

"Be . . . cause they're bad people?" Lan tried, but Mom shook her head. Frowning, Lan decided to have another guess. "Um . . . because they need to pay for what they've done."

Mom nodded and leaned back. "Exactly. They atone for their crimes, Lan. They make amends. Where do you think I'm going with this?"

Lan honestly had no idea, so he just shook his head.

Mom smiled at him, a gentle and loving smile. "If you're going to blame yourself, you're going to need to make up for it. When MegaMan wakes up, he's going to need all the help he can get. You're his NetOp and his brother. You can start making up for this by helping him as best as you can, even if it's just a little. Okay?"

He looked at her for several moments, stunned. And then, for the first time in hours, he started to smile - it was a small, timid smile, but a smile all the same.

"Yeah," Lan agreed. "Yeah. Okay, Mom. And, um . . ." He didn't want to ask this, but he had to. For his own sanity's sake if nothing else. "A-are you . . . gonna kick me out because of this?"

"Of course not. I'd never kick you out, no matter the reason." Mom looked like the very idea offended her, and Lan felt so relieved he wanted to cry. "Now, come on. MegaMan should wake up any moment now. We're a family and we need to deal with these things together, alright?"

"Alright."

She took his hand and led him back over to the reconstruction pod, where Dad was still tapping away. He paused when they came over and looked up, then smiled tiredly.

"You feeling a little better?" Dad asked.

Probably wouldn't be a good idea to lie. "Not . . . exactly," Lan answered, "but I think I might be getting there. How's MegaMan?"

"He should be waking up any second now," Dad reported, straightening up. "I've done all I can, but there's nothing more I can think of that can help. We'll need to break the news gently. Or as gently as possible, anyway . . ."

Lan nodded, and turned his attention to MegaMan.

Nothing happened for almost half a minute, but eventually, his eyes flickered, and then opened slowly. They were dull at first, a result of the full shut down, but after a moment his usual bright green colour came back and he was alert again, looking around with a frown.

Then he noticed Dad.

"Dad," MegaMan said, confused, "what's going on? Where am I?"

"A reconstruction pod," Dad replied carefully. "You're at SciLab, MegaMan."

"What? Why?"

"MegaMan, what's the last thing you remember?"

MegaMan tilted his head as he tried to remember, the frown on his face deepening. Then the frown disappeared altogether, replaced with realisation.

"I was battling, I think," he said. "With . . . GutsMan?"

"Yeah," Lan agreed, and MegaMan glanced at him, surprised.

"Lan!" he exclaimed, starting to grin. "Sorry, I didn't see you there. What was that you said about me being a ninja? I think we need to apply that to you, instead. Did you steal my HeatShadow style?"

"Uh, no."

Well, at least he was still normal. Or as normal as MegaMan could get, anyway.

"Hello there," Mom spoke up, an amused but somewhat sad smile on her face.

"Mom's here too? Aw, did I get my arm ripped off or something? Are both of them still there? I mean, I don't mind being unarmed, but I'd rather not be 'armless, you know?"

"Oh god stop," Lan groaned, burying his face in his hands. "Your puns are terrible."

"Awesome. You mispronounced awesome."

"I did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Did not."

"Did not."

"Did too." Lan paused. "Wait, no, that's wrong."

MegaMan giggled. Actually _giggled_.

Lan wanted to hit him.

"MegaMan," Dad broke in before the conversation got too silly, "let's get back to what I asked. What's the last thing you remember before waking up here?"

The giggle died out so quickly that it was almost like he'd become a different person. "The fact that you ask that in that tone suggests there's something I _need_ to remember," MegaMan said cautiously. "What happened?"

"Please, just tell us what you remember, and then I'll tell you. I promise."

For a moment, MegaMan didn't reply. He stared at Dad quietly, but he eventually spoke again. "I remember a battle. Against GutsMan and Dex. I was doing pretty well, and then . . . then something happened. GutsMan got the jump on me or something. Things started to go really badly."

"He started breaking the data blocks you were hiding on," Lan reminded him.

"Yeah," MegaMan said, tilting his head a little. "That's what happened, yeah, I remember now . . . After he started breaking the data blocks, I kept jumping around, trying to avoid him, cus I didn't wanna end up on the ground. That Guts Hammer of his breaks literally _everything_ , I swear."

Lan restrained himself from commenting.

"I think I got cornered," MegaMan went on, frowning as he tried to piece together what he could remember. "He broke the block I was on, and I tried jumping, but the thing was crumbling apart as I jumped and I landed weirdly. GutsMan almost got me. And then again and again. He was really fast, like, I didn't know he could be that fast - do you think maybe Dex used some sort of NaviCust program or something? I don't remember GutsMan being that fast. Do you remember him being-"

"MegaMan," Dad said.

"Sorry. Um. What was I . . . Oh, right, he was really fast and I kept dodging cus that was all I could think to do, I couldn't even counter him, I didn't have the room to, and then he threw a punch that made me go flying."

Lan risked a glance at Mom, just to see how she was reacting to hearing this, but he couldn't read her expression. She was probably used to it by now, what with her sons being NetBattlers and all, but actually hearing a battle being described like this was different, Lan knew.

"I was okay, though," MegaMan quickly, as if he'd realised what he was doing. He was rambling. Lan hadn't noticed it before, but he had a habit of rambling if he was panicking. "It didn't hurt that much, it just stunned me for a second. I got up, and then . . ."

Something changed in his tone, and MegaMan's eyes widened a fraction.

" . . . and then he hit me again. But it hurt," he said quietly. "It . . . hurt. A lot. I couldn't think, it just hurt so much, it was . . . I can't feel my legs."

The sudden subject change startled Lan, but then he didn't have time to be starled, because MegaMan was beginning to look panicked.

"I can't . . . I can't feel my legs," he said, eyes wide. He was shaking. "Why . . . why can't I . . . Dad? Dad, why . . . M-Mom . . . I can't feel . . . why . . . Lan?"

Lan rushed forward, placed his hands on the glass, and MegaMan raised his own shaky hands to place them over Lan's. "I'm right here," Lan told him.

"Why can't I feel my legs? I'm . . . I'm not supposed to . . . I'm a Navi. I should be able to feel my legs. Is this normal? This can't be normal. It's not normal. At all. Not feeling my legs is definitely not normal, is it? I . . . I can't feel my legs. I can't feel my legs. _Why can't I feel my legs_?"

"Calm down," Dad said, hands raised to try and calm the panicking Navi. "MegaMan, listen to me, just calm down. Take a deep breath. In. Out. Come on, you can do it, just breathe in . . . and then out. That's it. Deep breath. In . . . out. Do it with me, okay? Breathe in . . . and out. That's it, you're doing great."

He was still looking panicky, but the breathing seemed to be helping a little bit at least. Lan kept his hands over MegaMan's just in case, though, and he saw Mom come closer out of the corner of his eye.

After MegaMan calmed down a little, he tried asking again. "Dad. Tell me. Why can't I feel my legs?"

" . . . You remember getting hit by GutsMan, and you remember the pain you felt afterwards?" Dad asked. MegaMan nodded. "MegaMan . . . I'm sorry, there's no easy way to say this. Your spine was broken. That's why you were in so much pain. I've done all I can, but a broken spine for a Navi is . . . beyond what I can fix. You're not in any more pain, I've made sure of that."

"Alright. That's great. No pain. Okay. I'm thrilled. But why can't I feel my legs?"

"Because you can't walk anymore," Dad said.

MegaMan stared at him in complete silence for several moments.

"Oh," he eventually said.

 **oooo**

Chaud was pretty sure something bad had happened, but as far as he knew, it had absolutely nothing to do with him - or, by extension, ProtoMan. Mainly because no one had given him any weird looks, and no one had actually said anything to him just yet.

But as he walked through SciLab towards Dr. Hikari's lab, he could practically feel the tension in the air. Normally-cheerful receptionists and scientists, not to mention various members of staff, were unusually quiet and they whispered to each other nervously, yet no one seemed willing to explain what was going on. Even though this was a slightly unsettling development, he didn't think it would concern him just yet, so he decided to leave them all to their uneasy whispering.

"Maybe there was a virus attack." ProtoMan, on the other hand, didn't seem to want to leave it alone.

"I doubt it," Chaud replied. "If there had been one, wouldn't they have called us in to help out?"

"They might not have had enough time to react," his Navi suggested. "Maybe it's already over and half the data in the labs has been stolen or something. Maybe they'll need us to track it all down and bring it back before it falls into the hands of evil and is used to bring about the end of the world as we know it."

"ProtoMan, I have to ask, are you really that bored of training that you're coming up with potentially-imaginary scenarios in which we can rush to the rescue just so you can have something to do?"

"I did say 'maybe'," ProtoMan muttered.

"And I said 'potentially-imaginary'," Chaud countered. "Also, you have a weirdly vivid imagination. Oh, thank god, we're here."

He ignored ProtoMan's electronic sigh, and turned the corner to Dr. Hikari's lab. The doors were closed, strangely enough. That was unusual.

Maybe ProtoMan's virus theory was actually correct.

Then he noticed one of Lan's friends - Dex - sitting in a chair against the wall, with his head down and shoulders slumped. Even from here, Chaud could tell something was seriously wrong, mainly because of the horrified blank expression on his face. Chaud wasn't an idiot, far from it, so he naturally assumed that whatever was going on, Dex had something to do with it, and so did the fact that Dr. Hikari's doors were closed.

"Hey," Chaud called. Dex didn't react, so he walked over until he was almost right in front of him. "Dex? Hey, look at me. What happened? Why is everyone so wound up? And why are you just sitting here?"

"I did something really bad," Dex mumbled.

"You broke one of Dr. Hikari's computers?"

"Worse."

Chaud honestly couldn't think of what could be worse than that - Dr. Hikari's computers contained a lot of important information, mostly concerning NetNavis and anything related to them. To lose even one bit of that data would be a complete disaster. So what was worse than losing extremely important data such as that?

Oh, no.

"You broke _all_ of the computers?" Chaud demanded, horrified.

"Chaud, none of the computers got broken," ProtoMan informed him. "I just checked, they're all fine. Aside from the vending machine."

"What's wrong with the vending machine?"

"Someone moved it as a prank and no one can find it."

Chaud would've sighed if he cared enough. Honestly, these kind of jokes were more MegaMan's thing. Maybe ProtoMan had been hanging around the blue Navi for too long, it was clearly a bad influence on him.

"Alright, fine, so the computers are all working and the only thing missing is the vending machine," Chaud said, turning back to Dex. "What's worse than breaking a computer? Dex? Are you even paying attention?"

"I broke MegaMan," Dex told him, finally looking up. He looked like he was about to cry. "I didn't even know what happened until Lan shouted at me. The poor little guy was screaming and I didn't even notice, even GutsMan tried to make me see it, but I was too focused on actually winning for once, and I . . ."

Chaud stared at him. "What do you mean, you _broke MegaMan_?"

Suddenly Dex was angry, and he shot up so quickly that Chaud stumbled back a step in surprise.

"I broke him!" Dex snapped. "What more do you want? I don't even know if he's alive right now, he could have been deleted for all I know! Is that good enough for you? Or do you want me to spell it out, too? Want me to write an essay about how much I screwed up?"

"Hey," ProtoMan said angrily. " _Hey_! Back off, kid!"

"You back off!" Dex retorted, which made approximately no sense whatsoever.

A new voice interrupted the growing argument - unintelligent as it would have been - and for once Chaud had never been more thankful. These people kind of annoyed him, sure, but he seriously didn't know whether or not he could take on an angry Dex and so for once he was actually relieved that these people had interrupted his conversation.

"Dex, c'mon, leave him alone," another of Lan's friends, the pink-haired girl Maylu, called as she rushed over. The little girl Yai and that other kid, Tory, followed her.

"Yeah," Yai said with a smirk, "we know he's a prick, but even Chaud doesn't deserve to be smooshed into a pancake."

"Your concern is touching," Chaud deadpanned. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Annoying brat.

"I didn't think you'd sent an email to Chaud, too," Tory said to Dex. "I didn't even know you _had_ his email address, actually."

"He doesn't," Chaud informed him. He sure as heck wasn't about to just give it out, either.

"I never sent him an email," Dex said at almost the same time. "Just you guys. I . . . I thought you should know what happened."

"What _did_ happen?" Maylu asked, frowning. "I mean, I heard some of it from what you were shouting at Chaud, but . . . what did you break? Or, well, _who_ did you break, since you said you broke 'him'."

"Apparently he broke MegaMan. Or GutsMan broke MegaMan, and Dex told him to," Chaud broke in before Dex had a chance to explain himself. "He was in the middle of yelling it at me before you guys showed up."

"You broke MegaMan!?" someone else practically shrieked.

Chaud almost looked around for the owner of the voice - who was apparently invisible - but then Maylu pulled out her own PET, and revealed a worried-looking Roll. Ah. Right. Of course she'd be worried, she and MegaMan were just as close as Lan and Maylu were. Except they didn't argue on a regular basis, as far as Chaud knew. Well, that was what ProtoMan said, anyway.

. . . Yeah, ProtoMan definitely spent far too much time with these people. So did Chaud actually.

"Tell me what you did right now or I'll infect your computer and every piece of technology you own with a virus so bad it'll make the World Three's virus attacks look like a children's game!" Roll hissed.

Okay, that was a little bit impressive.

"I dunno what I did!" Dex yelped, suitably terrified. Roll could apparently be really scary when she wanted to be. "W-we were battling, and then I had GutsMan punch MegaMan, only it was a lot more powerful than we thought it'd be, a-and then MegaMan was screaming and Lan was shouting at me and then he ran off to SciLab! I came here as well, and then I emailed you guys, cus I thought you should know, just in case MegaMan . . ."

"This at least explains the tension," ProtoMan said to Chaud quietly. "So it wasn't a virus attack after all."

"Just a battle gone wrong," Chaud agreed, frowning. He turned his attention back to Dex once again. "But why is everyone so freaked out about this? Dr. Hikari can fix MegaMan easily. He's been through worse, hasn't he?"

Dex only shrugged. Apparently he'd exhausted himself, and he slumped back onto his chair heavily, going back to staring blankly at the floor. Chaud was still confused about this, but at least one question was answered. And ProtoMan's imagined scenario of a virus attack wasn't about to become the truth, so that was something.

"I get the feeling we're missing a really big part of the picture," Tory said, and Chaud had to agree with that.

The real reason he'd come here was because he needed to speak with Dr. Hikari about something, but clearly this was gonna have to take priority for now. Whatever 'this' was, anyway.

He didn't have anything better to do, so when Lan's friends took seats around Dex, he leaned against the wall nearby. Lan and MegaMan were his and ProtoMan's biggest rivals, he told himself, so of course he'd be concerned about them. Or, well, mainly MegaMan, since Dex and GutsMan had . . . 'broken him'. Whatever that even meant.

The five kids and their Navis waited around for a long while, until finally the doors to Dr. Hikari's lab opened up. The entire Hikari family came out, which was a little surprising, and even more surprising was that, while Dr. Hikari and Haruka noticed the group waiting for them, Lan himself didn't notice any of them at all.

He was focused entirely on his PET. On MegaMan.

Chaud pushed off the wall as the others stood up. Dex in particular looked apprehensive as the Hikari family came over to them.

"I'm sorry," Dex blurted out almost instantly. "I just . . . Is he okay? Did you fix whatever happened to MegaMan?"

"I did the best I could," Dr. Hikari replied. That was vague. "He's not in any pain, at least."

"What did happen to MegaMan?" Maylu asked tentatively. "I mean, Dex did say he . . . broke MegaMan . . . but he couldn't tell us anything more than that."

For a long moment, Dr. Hikari just looked at them. It almost seemed like he was about to say something he didn't want to. Haruka gently laid a hand on his arm, and he relaxed a tiny fraction.

"MegaMan's spine is broken," Dr. Hikari explained.

Chaud's heart skipped a beat.

"His _what_ is broken?" Yai demanded. "Is . . . is he okay?"

"Not . . . exactly. The news was a shock, of course," Dr. Hikari sighed. "But he's not in pain anymore. That's . . . something, at the very least."

It certainly was something. But having a broken spine? As a _Navi_? That was . . . Chaud had never heard of this happening before. Or if it had, he'd never known about it. Then again, he'd never heard about a Navi who had once been a human, so . . . It seemed fairly likely that MegaMan was always going to be the centre of all kinds of strange things. A broken spine apparently being one of them.

Maylu, Dex, and Tory, meanwhile, just looked confused. It was Tory who spoke up first.

"Navis have spines?" he said, frowning. Then he blinked and realised what that meant. "Wait, Navis have _bones_?"

Chaud looked at him. "You didn't know?" he asked, geniunely surprised at that.

"Well, I just assumed they were all data . . ."

Maylu and Dex nodded their agreement.

And this day just kept getting weirder.

Chaud sighed and turned to them fully. Looked like it was up to him to educate them, though at least it seemed that Yai had known about Navis having bones.

"Navis are complicated programs, far too complicated to just be made from simple data," he said. "Some Navis aren't even remotely human, but every single Navi needs some sort of structure to their frame, otherwise their complicated program would just collapse as soon as they came online. Their bones essentially work the same as any other living creature, and without them, a Navi would just . . . crumble, to put it in a less technical term."

"They're basically data-bones," Yai broke in. "And they can be broken and mended just like real bones."

"So, when GutsMan hit MegaMan . . ." Maylu trailed off.

"I'm guessing GutsMan hit him so hard that his spine snapped upon impact, and slamming into the ground mere moments later didn't help matters at all," Chaud finished.

"But if a Navi's bones are data just like the rest of them," Dex said, "wouldn't you be able to fix 'em just as easily?"

Dr. Hikari, to whom Dex had addressed the question, sighed. "A spine is extremely complex and extremely delicate. I have the knowledge to make a Navi, yes, but I don't have the knowledge to be able to fix something like this. I've tried everything I could, but this is beyond any of my abilities."

"So MegaMan can't walk anymore," Chaud said.

Dex made a sound like a strangled cat.

"I don't blame you, Dex," Lan suddenly said, finally glancing up from his PET. "I . . . To be honest, I blame myself."

"Lan . . ." Dr. Hikari sighed.

"But I'm gonna do everything I can to make it up to MegaMan, starting right now," Lan said, a familiar determined expression on his face. That was somewhat reassuring, at the very least. But it was strange that MegaMan hadn't said anything about this so far.

In fact, he hadn't made a sound. Yet Lan's PET was right there, and from what Chaud could see, it wasn't damaged at all. But maybe it wasn't the PET.

"Can . . . can I at least say sorry to him?" Dex asked. "And GutsMan wants to say sorry too, he's just . . . kind of . . . hiding. I think he's scared. So am I."

That got a little smile out of Lan. "GutsMan can say sorry whenever he wants to, but it's still not your fault or his," he said. He held out his PET all the same. "Here you go. Just be careful, okay? And please don't get upset if he doesn't say anything to you, he hasn't . . . he hasn't said a word since Dad told him what happened."

There we go. That was why MegaMan was so uncannily silent.

Dex nodded and took the PET, handling it with such care that Chaud would've thought it was made out of extremely fragile glass. Then again, considering what Lan had just said, it practically was fragile. Or MegaMan was, at least.

"Chaud," ProtoMan said.

Chaud brought out his own PET. ProtoMan was looking worried, or as worried as a Navi whose face was mostly covered with a visored helmet could look. But for some reason he also appeared to be somewhat hopeful.

"The reason you came to see Dr. Hikari," ProtoMan told him. "Remember? Nowhere?"

For a moment, Chaud just stared at him, frowning. And then it sunk in.

"Nowhere," he echoed, eyes widening in realisation. He nodded. "Thanks, ProtoMan."

ProtoMan gave him a smile, and Chaud put the PET away again. Then he went over to Dr. Hikari, who was talking quietly with his wife.

"-be possible at all to make some sort of wheel- oh, hi, Chaud!" Haruka exclaimed, noticing him. "Were you worried about MegaMan as well?"

It was hard to remember sometimes, but MegaMan was her son as well as Lan. If she was worried or upset about this, she was hiding it remarkably well. Most likely for the sake of her family. Dr. Hikar was looking like he was about to fall apart at any moment, MegaMan was obviously not in the best place at the moment, and Lan was doing his level best to make sure no one was more guilty than himself. This woman was quite possibly one the greatest mothers to ever grace the world with her existence.

"Um, well, I didn't come here for him, but yes," Chaud replied, because it was true anyway and he'd hate to lie to Haruka. That would just feel wrong. "I need to speak with Dr. Hikari, actually. I . . . realise that you want to focus on MegaMan and Lan right now, and I apologise for doing this, but . . ."

"It's alright," Dr. Hikari said, smiling a little. "What do you need, Chaud?"

"It's private, I'm afraid."

Dr. Hikari nodded, and glanced at Haruka. "I'll be back in a moment, Haruka. Chaud, why don't you come with me?"

Chaud agreed with that, and with a nod to Haruka, he followed Dr. Hikari back into his lab.

 **oooo**

"MegaMan?" Dex called quietly, holding Lan's PET like glass. "Hey, um . . ."

Lan knew what he was seeing. The same thing he'd seen when MegaMan had been transferred back into the PET a few minutes ago. Once back inside, he'd kind of . . . slumped down, and was just sitting against the edge of the PET's screen, staring blankly at the opposite side. He hadn't moved at all and Lan was really worried about him, and no amount of talking, not even any of MegaMan's usual dumb jokes and puns, would get him to react.

He was just . . . silent.

"I'm really sorry about this," Dex said to MegaMan. There were tears in his eyes but he didn't cry. "GutsMan is too, I swear, and he wants to say sorry as well, but he wants to say it without anyone watching. He's, uh, he's scared of what everyone will think of him, but please don't think bad of him, or, or me . . . I'm really sorry."

MegaMan didn't respond.

Dex worked his mouth for a few moments, trying to find the words, but MegaMan's lack of response made him loose his nerve and he handed the PET back to Lan.

"Sorry," Dex said to Lan. "I'm sorry. Really. If I could take it back-"

"I know," Lan said. "So would I."

"Do you think MegaMan'll be okay?" Maylu asked, shifting uneasily.

Lan didn't really know what to say. He was pretty sure MegaMan could hear them, but he wasn't entirely sure if he understood what was being said. He didn't like talking about someone as if they weren't there just because they weren't paying attention - or couldn't pay attention.

"Of course he will," Yai said with all the conviction that Lan didn't have. "He's MegaMan! He'll bounce back, he always does."

"He may not bounce back from something like this, Yai," Tory said quietly.

They all went silent, considering what that meant for a moment.

Lan didn't want to loose his best friend. Like Mom had said, he needed to help MegaMan. He just . . . he just wanted MegaMan to be okay, that was all. If there was even the slightest chance-

"I can't believe I didn't think of this before!"

Everyone turned to see Lan's dad practically bouncing out of his lab, Chaud trailing behind him with a tiny, amused smile on his face. The sudden joy radiating from Dad was a little more than startling to Lan.

"Uh, Dad?" he asked.

Dad grinned at him. "Lan, I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I kind of accidentally lied to you. Or, well, I forgot to mention this because, well, I forgot about it completely. I mean, who wouldn't? They're _underground_ , and it's not like they make an effort to communicate with anyone outside their own country."

"Yuichiro, darling," Mom said, "you're rambling."

"Ah, right, sorry. But they can help us! Actually they're practically the only people who can help us, I think. Definitely the best option, at least."

"Dad, you gonna explain what you're going on about sometime in the next five years?" Lan asked.

"I know how to fix MegaMan," Dad announced. "I know who can help us, at least, and Chaud just reminded me about them. Told me about them, actually. Lan, Haruka, pack your bags!"

"Where're we going?" Lan asked.

Dad's grin somehow got even wider.

"Nowhere," he said. "We're going to Nowhere."

 **OOOOOO**

And here's where the plot starts to get interesting!

I didn't originally plan to have Haruka join them in going to Nowhere, but then I thought about it and decided that she'd want to be as close to her boys as possible. And also she's pretty much the only person who could just look at you and you'd feel ashamed of yourself if you've done anything bad. She's like the nicest person on the planet.

Moms are kinda like that. Or, well, Haruka is, in this fic at least. My mom isn't anything like that . . .

Ahem. Moving on.

Nowhere will be explained in the next chapter. I'll also explain the reason why the place is called Nowhere during the end-of-chapter AN for the next chapter, but the main thing I wanted to get out of the way is telling you guys exactly what Nowhere is.

Mainly because I'm keeping it very vague in this chapter, which is basically so I can make a pun/whatever it's called like that last line of dialogue up there.

Also, yeah, MegaMan isn't doing so well.

Who liked my explanation for Navi bones, by the way? Took me a while to come up with a reason why a Navi would have bones, and that was the best reason I could think of.

Read and review!


	3. Chapter 3 - Into the Light

Like I said in the other AN, I'll be explaining the origins behind Nowhere in the end-of-chapter AN for this chapter. Origins meaning, of course, how I came up with the concept of Nowhere. Its in-story backstory is explained in this chapter, or at least as much of it as I can possibly fit in without it seeming too clunky or whatever the word is.

Forced? Ah, whatever.

Anyway, little bit of info about the country where Nowhere is in - it's loosely based on Egypt. So it's basically a desert country. Fortunately, we won't be going right into the desert to get to Nowhere, since I've decided to have it a few miles out from the ocean. It also has a marina that's actually aboveground, which will be featured in this chapter, and also hopefully I can get to Nowhere itself during this chapter as well.

I say 'hopefully' because, let's face it, I tend to make this up as I go along, and plot may or may not happen. They're all on a ship in the first bit, though.

Moving on, I've decided that Lan and MegaMan will, in fact, be main characters - meaning they'll have POV chapters themselves, alongside Chaud and ProtoMan. Originally I was intending for Lan to just have the prologue and second chapter, and then the occasional POV-switch when necessary, but then I changed my mind. MegaMan won't be getting any POVs at the moment, he's kinda . . . unresponsive right now, and I'm not ashamed to admit that I don't know how to write that kind of POV.

On the other hand, we will be seeing more of Chaud and ProtoMan's POVs, just not right now. I'm still focusing on Lan himself.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"Decades ago, Nowhere was one of the first cities to embrace the rapidly-advancing technology that we now live with every day," Dad explained, somewhat excitedly. "It became a metropolis almost overnight and was at the forefront of quite a few technological advancements, Navi medical science among them."

"A metropolis?" Tory repeated. "So is it the capital city?"

"No, of course not. Nowhere City isn't the capital of Savaro, that'd be Stone Central, which is almost on the opposite side of the country. Anyway, Nowhere was pretty quick to become one of the world's leading technologically-advanced cities. But then three decades after it became a full-fledged city, an unknown terrorist organisation bombed the entire city and reduced it to nothing more than a toxic pile of rubble. The remains of the bombed city are still too toxic to go into, even today, and you'd need something like a hazmat suit to even go near it."

"But Dr. Hikari," Maylu said, confused, "you were talking about the city like it's still there."

"That's because it is," Dad declared triumphantly.

A blank silence met his words.

Dad kind of deflated a little. "Does . . . does no one else know about this?"

Chaud raised his hand. "I do," he said.

"You reminded me about the place, you don't count."

"I've heard about it from my dad, but he never explained what Nowhere was," Yai offered. "He just mentioned it sometimes in passing."

"Well, that's something, at least," Dad muttered. He sat up a little straighter and grinned at them. "Alright then, I'll explain what I mean. Nowhere was bombed, sure, and the city ruins on the surface are still too toxic to go near. But the citizens of Nowhere City didn't want to leave their city behind - it was their home, and they wanted to stay, even though they couldn't figure out how to purify the air. So do you want to guess what they did?"

For a few moments, no one replied. They frowned and tried to puzzle it out individually, and then glanced at each other in case anyone else had an answer. They didn't.

"They built an entirely new city underground," Dad said dramatically, clearly enjoying this far too much. "Anyone notice how I said 'on the surface'? Well, the greatest minds of the city came together, and they decided to dig _underground_. By sheer luck they found a massive cavern miles under the old city ruins. They did a lot of construction and it took absolutely ages, twice as long as it took to build the city on the surface, but eventually they completed the new-and-improved city of Nowhere - right underneath the ruins of the old city. Nowhere also happens to be one of the best-protected cities on the planet, and it's all because of the toxic old city above them, and the high level of security they have in the new city underground."

"An underground city sounds like something from a fantasy story," Mom commented, smiling. "It sounds quite fascinating!"

"It certainly is! I've only been there once myself," Dad said, "but I loved it there. It was amazing."

"But if the city's underground, how're we getting in?" Lan wondered. "Dad, we're on a _ship_. It's not like we can just sail underground." He paused, and frowned. "Or can we?"

Dad chuckled. "That would just be silly, even for Nowhere," he replied. "But, no, we're docking at the marina, and then we're taking a Gondola into the city itself. It's easier to show it to you than to describe it to you, so I'll refrain from commenting about the marina and the city's entrance for now."

"Is the _entire_ city underground?" Yai asked skeptically. "Because, to me, that doesn't sound at all possible. Or logical."

"Believe it or not, Nowhere actually _is_ entirely underground. They use high-tech support machinary to reinforce the rock walls and hold up the ceiling. They do have the occasional problem with things like quicksand and unstable platforms, and the odd rockslide, but they know how to deal with those problems better than anywhere I've been to. If there's a city that's better at construction than Nowhere, I haven't heard of it!" Dad laughed.

"But it's not just construction that they're good at," Chaud broke in. He was, as usual, keeping up his cool-guy act by leaning against the wall next to one of the windows in the room. "Like Dr. Hikari said, one of their fields of expertise is Navi medical science - they have a whole lab dedicated entirely to Navi reconstruction. Not to mention several Navi data-bone experts."

Lan glanced at him, and then looked back at his dad. "So . . . that's why we're going to Nowhere?" he asked. "Because they might be able to fix MegaMan's spine?"

"That's right," Dad agreed with a grin. "You can thank Chaud for reminding me about Nowhere, actually. If he hadn't mentioned it, I doubt I would've even remembered that these people even exist! They don't often communicate with the world outside their own country, so it's easy to overlook them, despite their involvement in the world's technological advancement."

"Oh, wow . . ." Lan breathed. He turned back to Chaud, grinning. "Thanks! I guess MegaMan and me owe you big-time, huh?"

Surprisingly, Chaud returned the smile with one of his own. "Don't mention it," he replied. "I'm just as worried about him as you are, Lan. ProtoMan too."

"Us as well," Maylu spoke up. "We all came because we were worried, you know. When one of us is feeling bad, we all band together to help them in any way we can, and if the only way we can help MegaMan out is to get him to these Navi medical science people in Nowhere City, then so be it! Right, guys?"

"Yeah!" Tory, Yai, and Dex cheered.

 **oooo**

"This is a really big boat," Chaud muttered to himself.

He'd gotten lost no less than four times - this was currently the fourth time - and all he wanted to do was find the dining hall so he could eat something. His room was easy enough to find, it was pretty close to the stern of the ship and he remembered the view from the windows easily enough, but the dining hall itself was impossible to find.

"Ship," ProtoMan corrected him. "A boat is much smaller. A boat is a small to mid-sized vessel, which has much lesser cargo carrying capability as compared to a ship. Ships are specifically made to carry cargo or passengers or boats, whereas 'boat' is a generic term used for a variety of water crafts. Mainly boats are used for recreational purposes, such as fishing, or to ferry people."

"Did you eat a dictionary when I wasn't looking?" Chaud wondered.

"Excuse me if I read."

Chaud huffed a quiet laugh and rounded a corner, and ended up in yet another dead end. He sighed in frustration and turned on his heels, went back the way he went, and got lost for a fifth time.

"Should I download a map?" ProtoMan asked him.

"Nope, I got this. I totally got this."

"Of course you do."

Sass. Chaud was pretty sure he hadn't programmed ProtoMan with sass like this. Yup, definitely spending far too much time with Lan and his friends. Dammit.

He walked in silence for a few minutes, getting himself even more lost - ugh, maybe he _should_ have ProtoMan download a map, it'd be less hassle than this stupidity - and seeing more of the oversized boat, uh, ship than he'd ever care to see.

"I'm not really sure we're doing the right thing here," he said, just to get rid of the silence. It was starting to annoy him. He needed to talk about something, and this had been bugging ever since he'd talked to Dr. Hikari and gotten on this blasted ship.

"Well, if you need help, I'm sure there's a jack-in port somewhere around here-"

"I don't mean about getting hopelessly lost in this labyrinth," Chaud interrupted. "I mean about going to Nowhere City."

ProtoMan hummed, suddenly subdued. "I . . . suppose you're right, but if this is what it takes to get into the city, what choice do we have?"

"Yes, that's fine, but I feel horrible about using MegaMan's injury as an excuse," Chaud sighed. He rounded yet another corner and found himself outside. He kept walking anyway, just in case he could spot the dining hall from here.

"Dr. Hikari understands the reason we tagged along," ProtoMan reminded him. "And it's not like we're heartless. MegaMan's injury gave us the excuse we needed, but we're coming along for his sake as well as our own."

"I still feel horrible."

"Try not to let it consume you," his Navi advised.

"That's all I can do," Chaud agreed quietly.

He looked up ahead, and spotted Lan leaning against the railing. In his hands was his PET and he was talking to it - to MegaMan - quietly. Lan's voice was the only thing Chaud could hear aside from the crashing of the ocean waves against the side of the ship. MegaMan was still silent, then.

Chaud walked closer and could just make out what Lan was saying.

"-and they can fix your spine," Lan said, his focus entirely on the PET. "Dad told me he's working on a wheelchair program for you, so you can explore Nowhere's network all you want to, as well. Hey, maybe they have a really interesting Square! How about, after we go and meet the medical scientists, you and me go online and check it out? How does that sound?"

No response from the PET.

" . . . Even if his body recovers, his mind may not," ProtoMan said quietly.

Chaud hummed quietly in agreement. He stepped forward and cleared his throat to announce his presence, and Lan glanced up, startled. He relaxed after he saw who it was, though.

"Hey," Lan greeted him. "How long have you . . ."

"I only heard the last bit, don't worry," Chaud reassured him. Lan nodded and went back to looking at his PET. "Your dad said he's almost finished that wheelchair program, by the way."

"He has?" Lan looked up again. "Did he send you to come get me?"

"Well, no, he told me that at breakfast - which you missed, by the way - and I guess he's probably done with it by now."

"I missed breakfast?" Lan frowned. "Huh. I . . . hadn't realised. I'll go and get some food later. But if Dad didn't send you, what're you doing out here?"

Chaud pursed his lips and looked out at the ocean. He didn't miss the amused smirk that grew on Lan's face, however.

"You're lost, aren't you?" Lan asked, sounding far too gleeful about it. "And here I thought the great and powerful Official NetBattler _couldn't_ get lost. What a shocker."

"Shut up," Chaud said, turning back to him.

"I'm never letting you live this down, by the way." Lan sniggered at him a little bit more, and then tilted his head. "Why did you get lost, anyway?"

"I was looking for the dining hall." No harm in telling him. This was Lan, after all - he probably knew where all the food areas on the ship were by now.

"Really? I thought food was my thing."

Chaud gave him a strange look. "Lan, I haven't eaten since breakfast. That was at eight o'clock in the morning. It's three o'clock _in the afternoon_ now."

" . . . Oh. Guess I missed lunch too, huh?"

Okay, this was a little more than concerning. Lan Hikari, famous for his love of food, hadn't noticed that he'd skipped two meals in a row? He really was worried about MegaMan, wasn't he?

As if on cue, Lan's stomach rumbled loudly. Lan glanced down and then back at Chaud, and shrugged.

"I can eat at dinner," he decided. "So you can't find the dining hall?"

"If I could, I'd be there right now. Thankfully we have run of the entire ship and no other passengers to annoy us, so at least when I ask for something to eat I won't get weird looks from anyone else," Chaud said. "Help me find it. Please." He added the 'please' as an afterthought, in case his request sounded too demanding - which it kind of was, but, well, he didn't want to make things worse.

"Well . . . I suppose I _could_ have an early dinner . . . Okay."

And now Lan had to be convinced to get food. What was the world coming to?

But even with Lan's help, they still got lost pretty quickly. After somehow ending up in the engine room twice, Chaud determined that Lan's navigation skills were actually worse than his, and eventually decided to jack ProtoMan in to download a map. It turned out they'd somehow managed to pass the dining hall every single time they'd gotten lost, and, a little disgruntled, they made their way up and finally got some food.

Lan just picked at his food. He kept glancing at his PET, which he'd set down on the table, and when Chaud looked at the screen, all he saw was MegaMan just sitting there, staring at the edge of the screen blankly.

He exchanged a worried frown with ProtoMan. This really wasn't normal. It was . . . it was unsettling, was what it was.

They needed to fix this. But how . . .?

 **oooo**

Five days after they set sail from Electopia, and two days after Chaud enlisted Lan's help in finding the dining hall, they landed in the hot desert land that was Savaro. Or, well, they landed in a tiny marina that had been built into the side of a massive and very impressive-looking cliff, and Lan pulled off his vest in the sweltering heat and tied it around his waist.

"Man, this place is hot . . ." he panted, already sweating.

"What did you expect?" Chaud asked him, an eyebrow raised. "This place is literally two letters away from being called Sahara."

"Really?"

"Savaro. Sahara. The H and the last A are different. How did you not notice this?"

"Well, excuse me for not writing down the name of this furnace of a country and playing _Scrabble_ with the letters!"

"It's not a furnace," Chaud said, exasperated, as Dad came down from the ship and stepped onto the wooden planks of the marina's docking port.

"It certainly is hot, which is why I told you to change your clothes to something more suited for this kind of heat," Dad said to Lan, an amused smile on his face. "Everyone else listened to me."

Lan glanced at everyone else as they too came down from the ship, and indeed, they had listened. They all had various bags of luggage - no telling how long they were gonna be here, after all - and their usual clothes were stashed inside them, but everyone had put on clothes that'd be more suited for a hot summer's day in ACDC. Or, well, more suited for this extreme heat.

Except for Lan. Who was wearing his usual clothes. And sweating like nobody's business.

Man, he was an idiot.

"You won't have to worry for too long, though," Dad went on, as Lan grumbled and rolled up his sleeves. "Nowhere has excellent temperature control, and it changes to match how hot it is outside - if it's this hot out here, then down there, it's almost certainly pleasantly cool."

"So can we get moving already before I turn into a puddle?" Lan whined.

"Did you put on any sunscreen?" Mom asked, coming over with a frown and a bottle of sunscreen in one hand. "I don't want you to get sunburnt, Lan."

"Mooooom . . ."

"Now, now, don't give me that attitude. I'm lucky I only have to worry about one of my children getting sunburnt! Otherwise this would be a complete nightmare," Mom chuckled. "Right, MegaMan?"

A moment of silence passed, and all of the sudden the mood dampened, and Lan felt a little colder despite the heat.

"So, anyway!" Dad cried, clapping his hands together in the awkward silence in an effort to cut the tension. "We won't be going into the city itself just yet, I'm afraid."

Lam stared. "What," was all he could say to that.

"We need to go to the marina's Gondola station. We can't just swim into the city, after all. That would be impractical."

"Swim?" Maylu echoed. Lan was glad he wasn't the only one confused about that. "What do you mean by that, Dr. Hikari?"

Instead of giving them an actual answer, Dad just gestured for them to follow him down the docks and closer to the cliff. Lan could see now that a part of the cliff wasn't actually at all natural, although from a distance it could certainly pass as just another part of the cliff. A door, maybe? Pretty big door, though. It wasn't big enough for a ship to go through, but it was still massive. Waves crashed gently against it, and for some reason he thought he could see some of the water being sucked underneath. And the door was closed, which was why Lan hadn't noticed it was there before, and also it was the same colour as the rock walls around it. Blending in.

Maybe that was the entrance to the city. Judging by what Dad had told them, it was probably a lift, though what kind of lift Lan had no idea. What kind of lift would have to be that size, seriously?

That didn't explain what Dad meant by swimming, though. Or this Gondola thing, either.

A few metres away from the massive rock-coloured door was a shack, although 'shack' probably wasn't the word to describe it. It was wooden, and it looked like a shack, but it was pretty big and looked really fancy and new, despite the fact that it was wooden.

"This is the Gondola station," Dad told them, leading the way through the front doors, which were wide open. "It works just like a bus station, except for, well, the Gondolas."

"What type of gondolas are we talking about, here?" Dex wondered suspiciously. "Cus if it's the ones that go through the air, I think I'll swim, thanks."

"You can't swim, Dex," Tory reminded him, and Dex grumbled.

"Our Gondolas aren't the type that go through the air, I'm happy to inform you," a new voice said cheerfully. "Although we did briefly entertain the idea, we eventually decided it wasn't worth the hassle. Sky Gondolas break a lot easier than the ones that go across water."

The owner of the voice was a man with a very impressive beard, sitting behind the counter at the back of the shack. He was the only person in the shack, aside from Lan and the others, and didn't appear at all surprised that they were there.

"Hello, Dr. Hikari," the bearded man greeted Lan's dad. "Thanks for calling ahead. We've got a Gondola ready and waiting to take you into the city whenever you're ready, providing you don't mind our security team giving you a cursory check before you get onto it, of course."

"We don't mind at all," Dad replied just as cheerfully. "I just have to ask, are the Gondolas big enough for all of us?"

The bearded man glanced at them, counting. "Three . . . Five . . . Eight . . . Yup, we got a Gondola big enough for you and more. No need to fret!"

"Big enough? How many people do you normally get coming into the city?" Yai spoke up, a frown on her face. She didn't seem too impressed so far.

"Not very many. We do get some regulars coming and going, but they're usually just on official business," the bearded man replied. "If the marina hasn't impressed you yet, little lady, then allow me to tell you something - this isn't the main part of the marina. This is just the main entrance into Nowhere. We're kind of out of the way here, and the main body of Nowhere's marina is actually on the other side of the cliff we're built into. You keep walking to the left along the beach for ten minutes, turn the corner, and then you'll be at the main part. It's a lot more impressive than the Gondola station, I can assure you."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Yai said skeptically.

"Can't argue with that," the bearded man admitted happily. "So, if you would all just sign your names on this tablet, to confirm your arrival and all that, and then follow me outside to the gate . . ."

He put down a tablet on the countertop and waited until everyone had signed their names before tucking it away into his sleeveless jacket. Then he got up and led them outside, taking them over to the massive rock-coloured doorway that Lan had noticed before, and then led them to a much smaller, human-sized door that wasn't trying to pretend it was made from rock.

The bearded man held out a strange-looking sand-coloured PET to a scanner next to the door, and after a moment the scanner beeped and the door slid open for him. He led them inside, where Lan was surprised to see that the interior was actually pretty spacious.

There was a wide river gently flowing away from the direction of the ocean, and they were standing on a larger section of the rocky banks on both sides. Down by the river itself, Lan saw a few people, the security team probably, waiting for them. And resting quietly on the river itself, moored to some metal poles, were a whole load of small boats. The largest was further away and looked ready to go.

Gondolas. Actual, proper gondolas, ones that floated on water. From where he was standing, Lan could just about make out an advanced-looking engine at the back of each one. Then he wondered how in the world he could even see any of this, and he glanced up, and spotted various lights built into the ceiling itself. Wow. This was _so cool_.

"Huh," Dex said, sounding impressed. "So it's not sky gondolas."

"Yup," the bearded man agreed. He looked smug but not in a bad way, just smug like he was pleased that this had impressed them. "Our Gondolas - that's a capital G, by the way - are high-tech and powerful enough to ferry you to and from the city. There's another Gondola station at the end of the river here, ready to receive you. Professor Hestia is waiting for your arrival there, I'm told. Have fun!"

Then he left them alone, and one of the security guards from the banks of the river called them over.

They told the group to stand as still as possible, and then went through a very brief and very casual check that Lan had honestly expected to last longer. For guys who apparently had a high level of security, these guys sure didn't seem to take it very seriously. Or maybe there would be a more thorough check when they got into the city proper?

"Did Bran explain what'll happen when you get on the Gondola?" one of the security people, the guy who had just finished checking Dad, asked them.

"Bran? The guy who took us in here?" Tory asked.

"Him, yeah. I'm gonna guess the answer is no?" They confirmed that, and the security guard shook his head in amusement. "I swear that man's memory is worse than a sieve. You know the city is well underground, right?" Everyone nodded. "Well, the river isn't. At least not for the first part. It starts to slope downwards after that, but don't worry, it's gentle enough that you won't notice until you're well on your way down. It'll flatten out again once you're close to the city's entrance, and then it'll end at a gate similar to this one, except that one actually opens regularly. This one also opens, of course, but only when we need bigger boats to come through."

"Does that mean we're essentially going down a waterfall?" Mom wondered. "That . . . doesn't sound very safe."

"Oh, no, we can assure you, ma'am, this is all perfectly safe. This route is travelled regularly by anyone who needs to get into the marina, or anyone who needs to get into the city. It'll take you an hour to get to the other Gondola station, so I hope you've packed for a lengthy trip. We've already prepped the Gondola for you, and it's all automated, so you don't need to worry about steering it. If there's an emergency, please use the radio on the side of the engine to call for assistance, and whichever Gondola station you're closer to will send help as soon as possible."

The explanation over, he waved for the other guards to allow them through, and the group of eight climbed into the large Gondola waiting for them. One of the guards who had hung back during the cursory check now stepped forward and started up the engine for them, showing them how to use it in case of an emergency. Though Lan didn't know what kind of emergency would require them to operate the complicated-looking engine manually.

And then, in less than a minute, they were sailing down the river at a speedy but smooth pace. It was almost like taking the metroline back at DenTech City, except for the water passing by smoothly and the gentle purr of the Gondola engine at the back of the boat. The others were talking quietly to each other, but Lan ignored them for the moment, and pulled out his PET.

"MegaMan," he said quietly, "look where we are! Isn't this place the coolest? It's an underground river!"

MegaMan didn't respond, which he'd expected, but that didn't mean it still didn't hurt. Lan waited for a moment, just in case MegaMan did say something, and then turned the PET's screen outwards, showing him the rocky walls gliding by.

"It doesn't even feel like we're moving," Lan said. "But we are. Look at that! How fast are we going, do you think? I don't even know what kinda speed system boats and ships use, but I bet this is pretty quick for a small boat."

And still no response.

Disheartened, Lan turned the PET around so it was facing him again. "MegaMan . . ." he said quietly.

"Lan!"

He jolted, startled, and looked over at his friends. They were looking at him, and he could see the concern in their expressions, but they didn't comment on him trying to talk to MegaMan and he was at least grateful for that. Somehow, having someone acknowledge these failed attempts at talking to MegaMan would just make them seem worse than they already were.

"Come over here, we're discussing what we're gonna explore first in the city," Maylu went on.

Lan glanced at his PET, and sighed. He put it away, resolving to at least try again later - MegaMan couldn't stay quiet forever, right? Right? - and he went over to his friends and joined their discussion.

 **oooo**

The hour passed by pretty quickly. Lan, once he was finished talking with his friends, amused himself by looking at the walls cruising by. Because of that, he noticed that the deeper they went underground (the river had started to gently slope several minutes into the journey), the more supports he could see on the walls and ceiling.

When he asked about it, Dad explained that they needed more supports the deeper they were underground to keep the structure fixed in place. Since they were going through a tunnel, more supports were needed to keep it all up, but these weren't the high-tech mechanical supports that were used in the city itself. These were just the regular supports that you'd find in any old tunnel, albeit more sturdy. It was all pretty cool, and if this was how the patchwork of supports looked in the entrance, Lan couldn't wait to see what the city itself looked like.

"Here we are," Dad announced, after another few minutes passed. "The second Gondola station."

Lan glanced up from his PET - another unsuccessful attempt to talk to MegaMan - and perked up.

This Gondola station was a lot more interesting than the first, although the first had been pretty cool on its own. But this station was a small cavern, and much like the first, had several Gondolas tied up on the bank. Unlike the first, however, it was far brighter - owed largely to the fact that this station had twice as many lights, all built into the ceiling and halfway up the walls - and there were several counters that were built into both sides of the cavern walls. Several people sat behind those counters and chatted with their neighbours or with what seemed to be other members of the security team, but Lan could spot a few people who looked more like regular people.

The third wall, directly opposite them as they came into the cavern, was entirely dedicated to a smaller version of the massive door in the first station. This one wasn't trying to hide the fact that it was a door, however.

When they arrived at the bank, some of the security team hurried forward to help them out of the Gondola and tied it to one of the many metal poles.

"You guys have a nice cruise?" one of the security team asked, a wide grin on her face.

"Yes, actually," Mom replied, giving the security guard a smile of her own. "I was surprised, I didn't expect it to be so . . . relaxing, I suppose."

"Yeah," one of the other security guards agreed, "we get that a lot from first timers. The trip _does_ take a bit longer going up to the first station, though. So if you wanna leave the city for any reason, I hope you don't mind a _really_ long trip!"

"I don't mind a really long trip!" Dex volunteered, a massive grin on his face.

"Dex, you fell asleep halfway through," Tory pointed out dryly.

Dex shrugged, unconcerned.

"Ah, by the way," the first security guard said, "Professor Hestia is waiting for you over there." She gestured to the door.

A few feet in front of said door stood a middle-aged man wearing a white lab coat. His hair was pulled into a short black ponytail, and he was wearing a large pair of glasses that flashed in the artificial light. He looked like someone's surprisingly-young grandfather, or maybe just a father.

Dad led the way over, and greeted the man with a polite handshake and a grin.

"Haven't seen you in years, Yuichiro," the man in the lab coat greeted. "How's that new Navi project coming along?"

"I completed the project several years ago, actually," Dad replied. "And speaking of the new Navi . . . He's the reason we're here today."

Professor Hestia paused, and frowned. "Ah," he eventually said. "Well, you've come to the right place, at least. We'll take a look at the Navi when we get to the lab, this isn't exactly the best place to talk about such personal matters. Why don't you follow me? I'll take you through the Gate District and onto the tramline."

Dad knew this guy personally? Well, okay, it did kinda make sense - Dad did say he'd been to this city once before after all - but Lan was still surprised. It was kinda like your teacher being friends with your parents, and you only found out when they were invited over for dinner or something.

He was puzzled, but hey, that didn't matter, so he just followed along with everyone else.

Professor Hestia, like the bearded guy from the first station (whose name was apparently Bran), took out his own PET and held it up to a scanner next to the door. His PET was a curious grey and black colour, and after a moment, the scanner beeped and the doors slid open.

And, as he walked through the door, Lan got his first look at Nowhere City. And was completely stunned.

The first thing he noticed was how bright it was. There were lights everywhere - electric neon signs, street lamps that hung from various doorways and walls and stood in the middle of wide rodes and streets that were packed full of people and cars and all sorts of transportation vehicles. The buildings themselves were pretty awesome as well, packed pretty close together but not so close that the entire city was cluttered. There was space for everything here, it seemed.

He looked up and couldn't stop the grin that spread across his face when he noticed all the walkways above them. On the sides of the walkways, there were neon lights - different colours for different paths, and he traced a dark pink path with his eyes, following it to a wide platform suspended a few streets over. There were all sorts of platforms and walkways everywhere, some connecting to buildings, others connecting to different walkways via the platforms, and more still that went straight into tunnels high on the cavern walls. The walkways were all suspended by thin but sturdy-looking metal poles that ran up from the ground, through the pole, and into the high ceiling itself.

In the distance, he could see a tall black metallic pyramid-looking building with a soft yellow light glowing at the very tip. The pyramid itself appeared to be right in the middle of the city, and somehow Lan was reminded of an artificial sun as he looked at it.

And the people, too. For an underground city, this was a surprisingly cheerful place - Lan didn't know what he'd expected, but everyone seemed to be . . . well, just like anyone in a regular old city. Just like anyone in DenTech City.

Along the street they were immediately facing from the door, there seemed to be some sort of market - although it looked more like a festival from what Lan could see. There was music and a few performances (dancers, street magicians, all sorts of stuff), and he could see various stalls selling various things. These stalls were set up on both sides of the street and in the middle, and his mouth watered when he noticed that more than a few were selling delicious-looking (and delicious-smelling) food.

"Welcome to Nowhere City," Professor Hestia announced.

Lan squealed in excitement.

 **OOOOOO**

The plot thickens, and Chaud appears to have a secret agenda - and also a bad habit of only having one section of a POV while Lan gets the bulk of the chapter to himself. I'll fix this next chapter, don't worry, he'll have the entire thing to himself. Though I may get in a ProtoMan POV depending on how long the chapter goes on for, actually.

Anyway, moving on!

I promised to explain Nowhere City, and explain it I shall.

First of all, the look of the city. It is, as you've probably guessed, heavily based on cyberpunk. If you don't know what that is, go and look up 'cyberpunk city' on google images or something. I tried my best to describe it how I see it, but I've also kept it vague enough so that it's open for interpretation. If anyone who's reading this would like to draw what they think the city looks like, I'd love to see it!

Also, a little spoiler, but what Lan's seeing here isn't actually the main city. That's just the Gate District, but it's no less impressive than the rest of the city, just smaller cus it's the 'entrance district', so to speak.

Now, onto the name itself.

Has anyone ever heard of the YouTuber RoahmMythril? Well, you guys can thank him for the city's name. He made a joke in one of the his _Let's Plays_ of the _Battle Network_ series, about how the metroline has a place for 'nowhere' on the selection screen. Obviously this is the cancel button for the metroline pass thing, but he joked that 'nowhere' was an actual place, and a few fans sent in fanart of what they interpreted that joke as.

So I decided to make my own interpretation, in the form of fanfiction. And in the form of a massive underground city, literally called Nowhere City. The name actually does have an in-story explanation, and it's almost as silly as the reason why I chose it to start off with, and Professor Hestia will explain the name in the next chapter.

I'll also explain how he and Dr. Hikari know each other as well, although I'm fairly certain the pieces should be falling into place judging by their dialogue from this chapter.

I didn't give anyone much dialogue at the end here because I wanted to focus on describing the city, and Lan's reaction to it - which is basically 'ohmygod this is the coolest place on the planet'. And, despite the fact that I'm the one who created it and I'm generally not too impressed with most things I create, I'm of the same opinion.

I also really wanna live there. Goddamn but Nowhere City is awesome.

Oh, yeah, about RoahmMythril - the name of the city isn't the only thing he inspired. You'll see what I mean when we get to the reason Chaud's in the city. Or, well, the other reason he's in the city, since I've established that he is indeed concerned for MegaMan (and by extension Lan, who's having a very difficult time connecting with MegaMan at the moment) but he also has a secret agenda.

Read and review!


	4. Chapter 4 - Nowhere City

As promised, we get an entire chapter of Chaud, and maybe a little bit of ProtoMan if there's enough room.

Though considering what I'm planning on having in this chapter, that's probably not gonna happen. Let's just say it's gonna be weird and cool. Weird because, hey let's face it, we're in an underground cyberpunk city that's actually cheerful instead of dystopian. Cool because this is Chaud and he is nothing if not cool. Aside from his bad habit of getting lost constantly, which is only present in this particular world because I find it amusing to annoy him.

But yeah, let's get straight into this before I forget what I wanted to write.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"Welcome to Nowhere City," Professor Hestia announced.

Lan squealed like a little kid getting a new toy at Christmas, and Chaud sighed heavily.

"Lan," Maylu scolded with a frown.

"Sorry," Lan said, though the massive grin on his face said otherwise. "Sorry, it's just . . . Nowhere City is _awesome_."

Professor Hestia smiled. "Thank you," he said, his tone amused. "But I'm afraid this is just the Gate District. It is part of Nowhere, but it's not the main part - more like the entrance, honestly. It's called the Gate District because the main gate is right behind us, and this is the first district most people see when they come in. We're standing in the main street, and to answer your next question, yes, this is a festival. It's the annual anniversary of the bombing of the old city, and we usually honour the memory with the Bomb Festival. It honours the millions who died on that day, and celebrates the determination of the people who refused to leave their home, even when it was impossible to return. The main part of the festival runs from this part of the district right to the other end, all throughout the main street, but it covers the entire district, and it goes for three weeks. We're currently at the end of week one - the festival ends on the day of the bombing itself. You'll be free to come and visit whenever you please once we've had a look at your Navi."

"How did you know that was gonna be my next question?" Lan wondered, as they started off through the festival's main street.

"You were practically drooling the moment you noticed the food."

Haruka laughed. "That's our Lan - always thinking about food!"

At least he wasn't as absent minded as he'd been on the ship. That had been extremely unsettling.

While they walked through the festival-filled street, Professor Hestia pointed out the various stalls and street performers. Everyone else drunk it all in like sponges, but Chaud wasn't that interested in the festival, although he wasn't about to dismiss its importance to the people of Nowhere.

The festival was loud, and the people were mildly annoying, but they were celebrating something that most people would try to forget. That was admirable.

The citizens of Nowhere City were something else entirely.

Professor Hestia said it was easier to just follow the main street all the way through the district, so that was what they did. Halfway down the street, however, they came across the giant black pyramid that Chaud had noticed almost immediately upon entering. Up close, it was absolutely massive, although it was only half the height of the cavern. It was more wide than tall, Chaud guessed.

"This is our Sun Pyramid," Professor Hestia explained. "It's basically like our own version of sunlight. When it's day, the light at the tip is yellow. When it's night, it's blue. At dawn, it's red. And at dusk, it's purple. There's a Sun Pyramid in every district, right at the very centre."

"Why is it called a Sun Pyramid if it has colours for dawn, dusk, and night, as well as day?" Yai asked him.

"Well, calling it the Day and Night Pyramid didn't sound as catchy, and nor did calling it the Moon Pyramid, although there _is_ a Moon Pyramid in the Cultural District - but it's purely for aesthetics," the professor replied, looking pleased at the question. Clearly he enjoyed it when people asked questions like that. Then again, he was a professor.

They moved on, going around the Sun Pyramid - which took quite a while, considering its size. Chaud had to guess that the kind of technology required to make this kind of time-keeping device, although it'd probably be more accurate to call it a time-of-day-keeping device, would have to be incredibly complex. No wonder the pyramid was massive.

The entire square surrounding the Sun Pyramid was clearly the busiest part of the Bomb Festival. It was packed and they almost lost each other quite a few times, but using their Navis to keep in touch, they were able to meet up at the other side of the pyramid, where they continued on down the rest of the main street.

By the time they finally got to the end of the street, Chaud was almost burnt out. He hadn't minded the energy in the air when he'd first come into the city's festival, but having to navigate through the crowds and performers and everything else was just a nightmare. It didn't help that people with balloons and ribbon streamers and other things kept popping up in front of him, trying to persuade him into buying something.

He was a kid, but that did not mean he was gonna _act_ like a kid.

Although those ribbon streamers did look kind of interesting.

Chaud shook his head to try and rid himself of the sudden urge to get one, and he followed Professor Hestia into a metal-lined tunnel. The tunnel was short and, thankfully, not as packed as the festival streets, and opened out into a bigger tunnel that was home to a train station.

"And this here is the Gate Station," Professor Hestia said, gesturing around at large. "The very beginning of our tramline, and it branches out to every district in Nowhere City. Unfortunately I don't have the time to give you the grand tour of the _entire_ city, but then you'll have plenty of time to explore on your own if you want to. For now, though, we'll take a tram to the Science District."

He told them to wait for him here, and went over to the ticket stations to get them Science Tram tickets. While they were waiting, Chaud did a quick scan of the tramline station.

It wasn't as big as the second Gondola station cavern, but it was certainly longer. There were a few people here and there, some in groups and some alone, waiting for trams to arrive so they go to whatever district they needed to go to. The people who were in groups seemed to be festival-goers who had had enough of the festival for the day, but didn't appear to have exhausted their energy.

There were wide support pillars that seemed to be made from rock or brick at first glance, but upon closer inspection, Chaud found that they were actually metal - and each pillar had a jack-in port on a small panel. He couldn't see any other means of support in these tram stations, not like he'd seen in the Gate District (which had been an almost spiderweb-like patchwork of supports on the walls and ceiling), so maybe these pillars were special for whatever reason.

Other than the fact that you could clearly see the rocky texture of the walls, the tramline station was just like a normal underground train station. Or tram station, as it were.

"This place is really cool," Tory said, suddenly appearing beside Chaud.

He hadn't noticed him coming up, but Chaud didn't allow himself to jump. He had a reputation, after all, even if he didn't much care for it.

"It is," he agreed. "You gonna explore the city after we're done at the lab?"

"I think I'm kinda worn out after getting through that festival," Tory laughed, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Dr. Hikari told us he's booked us all in at a really cool hotel in the Haven District, so I'm just gonna spend the rest of the day there. IceMan says he wants to see if the net is as cool as the actual city is, though."

"With the way things are looking, I'd say that's almost a certainty," Chaud said, a smile tugging at his mouth. "I wonder what it's like inside that Sun Pyramid, though?"

"I bet it's awesome!"

Chaud agreed to that wholeheartedly, and a few moments later, Professor Hestia came over with several tramline passes. He handed them out to everyone.

"Normally guests and tourists in the city aren't able to get Frequent Passes, but the purpose of your visit is extremely unique," he explained. "So I've pulled some strings and abused the authority invested in me by the powers that be, and I've managed to get you all Frequent Passes. Essentially, these are tramline passes that you can use over and over, and you won't have to worry about paying. You can go anywhere on the tramline now."

Chaud accepted his with a 'thank you'.

"The next tram to the Science District should arrive in ten minutes," Professor Hestia went on. "It's on the other side of the city, so it's quite a long ride, I'm afraid. If anyone needs the toilet, I'd suggest you go now!" He laughed at his little joke heartily.

What a cheerful man. Chaud wondered if everyone in this city was just as cheerful, or if it was just the atmosphere of the Bomb Festival bringing out the best in people.

 **oooo**

Not many people apparently needed to go to the Science District, so when the tram arrived, just a few minutes late, they had the entire back of the tram to themselves. A couple of other people also got on, but didn't sit anywhere near the group.

Chaud spent his time watching the tramline tunnel pass by - like the tram station, the rock walls were making no efforts to hide themselves, and unlike the majority of the city that he'd seen so far, the tunnels didn't appear to have much lighting. The tram itself provided that, with lights built into its ceiling for the passengers and headlights at the front and back of the tram, lighting the way through the tunnel.

After almost fifteen minutes in the tunnel, it suddenly brightened, and they came out into another tram station. Chaud looked out the window and spotted a sign with writing that he couldn't read in bold letters. This station, unlike the previous one, was far more colourful, and even had creative graffiti on the walls and support pillars. By 'creative' he didn't mean rude, but literally creative. Very colourful indeed.

The tram stopped for a few minutes, giving people a chance to get on, and then started off again. As they were speeding up, Chaud noticed a group of people crowded around a trio of energetic dancers with a stereo blaring behind them.

"The Cultural District is essentially the 'artsy' area of Nowhere," Professor Hestia explained, when he noticed Chaud looking out the window. "From art to music, and everything in between. This is where most of the street performers in the festival come from, actually."

"Why is this place called Nowhere, anyway?" Yai spoke up. "Doesn't really seem like the kind of thing you'd call a city like this."

"The name is actually sort of our greatest joke," Professor Hestia replied, turning to her. "When the city was first built, it was actually a small town. People joked that they were living in the middle of nowhere. The town eventually grew and grew, but no one could decide on a name for it - it kept changing constantly, you see, because the people just couldn't _agree_ on a name. Eventually, someone came up with the idea to use the joke 'we live in the middle of nowhere', and the town was finally named Nowhere. It became a city soon afterwards, and thus became Nowhere City."

So the city's name was both their greatest joke and their greatest legacy. This place was getting more and more interesting the more Chaud learnt about it.

Almost two hours later, and three more tram stations later, they arrived in the Science Station. It was more uniform than the others, cleaner and less cluttered, and the majority of people who were waiting for trams or for people getting off trams appeared to be scientists of varying types. But while this station did seem more professional than the others, it was still relatively cheerful, just like the rest of the city.

Professor Hestia led them through the quiet hustle of the Science District's station, waving to a few people he apparently knew, and through the streets of the district. Unlike the Gate District, the Science District was more of a maze, and the streets went in every direction with no hint of a main street.

To get to the lab, Professor Hestia told them, they would need to get to the walkways above them. The lab was apparently built on top of a tall plateau near the edge of the district, nestled inside what would be called an alcove.

He took them to a wide support pillar holding up part of the walkway, a large platform connecting four different paths. There was a lift big enough to fit all of them and more inside, and they took it onto the top of the platform. When he stepped out and looked around at the pillar, Chaud saw that it kept going all the way to the ceiling of the cavern, keeping the entire structure up. From what he could see, various platforms and walkways had the same system, although the pillars on the walkways weren't as wide and didn't appear to have lifts built into them.

Professor Hestia called them over to a walkway with pale blue lights running along the sides.

"All we need to do is follow this walkway, and we're at the lab!" he declared. "Come along, and try not to fall off, although we do have safeguards in place just in case someone _does_ fall off. It doesn't happen too often, at least not with the citizens. We're all used to it. The Haven District is actually the only district without any walkways, mainly because it caters almost exclusively for tourists and guests in the city."

"This still doesn't seem too safe," Haruka said, hesitating to walk on the path. "It's . . . it's not narrow, but it still seems like we're going to fall off."

"You guys need railings or something," Dex agreed.

"Why would we need railings?" Professor Hestia frowned, genuinely puzzled at the notion.

Interesting. Yes. That was the word for it.

Not terrifying.

 **oooo**

Luckily they didn't need to walk too long on the wide but incredibly-worrying walkway (Chaud wasn't the only one who was constantly checking where he was going, and he saw Haruka walking in the very centre of the walkway with Lan and Yai). In just ten minutes, they came to the edge of the cliff that housed the lab they were going to, and everyone except Professor Hestia hurried off the walkway gratefully.

He gave them all a confused glance while he walked off calmly, as if he did this kind of thing every day of his life (which he probably did, actually), and gestured to the lab.

"Welcome to the Navi Research Labs," he said. It wasn't as dramatic as when he'd welcomed them to the city, and Lan certainly didn't let out an embarrassing squeal, but it was still very impressive.

Mainly due to the lab itself, which was a very impressive structure. Different buildings were arranged in a semi-circle around a large courtyard that had a fountain in the very centre and various paths branching off to the different buildings. Each building was backed into the walls of the alcove, and more than one appeared to actually extend _into_ the walls. The largest of the buildings was also the most impressive, and directly opposite them.

Professor Hestia pointed it out. "That's the main lab, the Navi Construction Centre. It's where we actually create new Navis and PETs, so it's basically the hub of our little section of the district." Then he gestured towards one of the closer buildings. It was smaller but no less impressive than the rest. "That building there is where we're going - the Navi Medical Science Lab. The scientists you'll meet are . . . well, eccentric, to say the least, and I mean that in the nicest way possible - mainly because I'm the head of that particular lab."

Even Dr. Hikari was surprised.

"The last time I was here," Dr. Hikari said, "you were just the head of one of the construction teams at the Centre."

"I got promoted," Professor Hestia replied with a grin.

He took them into the Navi Medical Science Lab. Here, he also waved at a few people he knew - all of them obviously scientists, although none of them were wearing what Chaud would call 'typical lab wear'. About one in four of them were actually wearing lab coats like Professor Hestia, while the rest seemed to wear whatever they pleased.

They went all the way through the main building, and into the part of the building that was built into the cavern wall. The corridors were more spacious here, but he couldn't say the same about the rooms, since they hadn't gone into any just yet. They were led straight through to the very back of the Medical Science Lab, and entered a double-doored room that was almost the same size as the second Gondola station's cavern.

"This is the heart of our lab," Professor Hestia explained, "and as such, the largest room here. Dr. Hikari, Haruka, kids, may I present the pride and joy of the Navi Medical Science Lab, the data-bone reconstruction room!"

At the sound of his voice, the team of scientists who were working in the lab - about twenty in all - looked around and peered at the group curiously. A few of them called out a greeting.

Professor Hestia headed for a large machine at the back of the room which took up most of the wall space, and they followed in silenced awe. As he was walking by, Chaud noticed a woman with long bushy hair wearing an aviator hat, complete with goggles, and she caught his eye and winked at him.

Chaud frowned. Weird.

"This here is our scanner," Professor Hestia was explaining when he caught up to the group. "It's used so we can scan Navis for data-bone damage. There's smaller versions of this in all of the medical rooms, but this one is the most powerful, because it needs to be able to detect even the slightest of fractions inside a Navi's body. It'll give us detailed reports on any type of break or bend, and checks the physical condition of the Navi being scanned. All you need to do is jack your Navi into the scanner, and we'll do the rest. If I remember correctly, you spent a lot of time in this room when you were here, didn't you, Dr. Hikari?"

"I did, yes," Dr. Hikari agreed, a smile spreading across his face. "This scanner wasn't here back then, and the machines weren't as advanced, but the room is almost exactly how I remember it. I needed a lot of help in figuring out how to make the structure of a Navi's bones, and the scientists working here were a massive help. The Navi Project worked beautifully because of their input."

"I thought the project was a SciLab-exclusive project?" Lan asked, frowning.

He wasn't the only one confused. Chaud hadn't heard of any other Navi labs being involved in the project either. He had known that Dr. Hikari had come to Nowhere City at some point, but he hadn't known the specifics as to why.

"Oh, it was," Dr. Hikari replied, turning to his son. "It's just that the project was so complicated, and I had little to no idea as to how to actually create a Navi from scratch. I was advised to go to the Navi Research Labs in Nowhere, and they helped me with the theory of the project and even gave me a few ideas as to how to move forward with it."

"You were gone for three months, I remember," Haruka said, smiling. "And when you came back, you were extremely excited."

"Aha . . . yeah, I was," Dr. Hikari chuckled, looking a bit embarrassed. "I was kind of hyper for a few weeks, wasn't I? But it all worked out in the end."

"It did," she agreed happily.

"Ah, but you said the same Navi you created via the project is the reason you're here today?" Professor Hestia asked, a worried frown appearing on his face. "May I ask where this Navi is, so we can have a look at it?"

"Right, yes," Dr. Hikari agreed with a nod. "Professor Hestia, scientists of the data-bone reconstruction room, I'd like to introduce you to my sons - Lan and MegaMan."

Lan stepped forward and waved sheepishly, suddenly embarrassed under the surprised stares that the scientists and Professor Hestia gave him. He didn't pull his PET out, most likely to spare MegaMan.

"Did you say sons?" a scientist wearing a black boob tube and a pair of grey jeans asked.

"How can a Navi be one of his kids?" another scientist asked his neighbour.

His neighbour shrugged and ran a hand through his artfully-styled hair, messing it up a little. Then he realised what he'd done and quickly fixed it.

Professor Hestia hadn't been kidding - these people _were_ eccentric.

"You told me the project was to combine human DNA with a Navi," Professor Hestia said, his worried frown turning into a puzzled one. "Do you mean to say you used one of your own children to do this?" His tone was guarded, and mildly angry. Offended.

Of course he would be. Without context, without the actual story behind MegaMan's previous life as Hub Hikari, anyone would automatically assume the worst of the information.

"I'm not a mad scientist," Dr. Hikari said calmly, as if he'd had this conversation before and knew exactly how to deal with it. He probably had, now that Chaud thought about it. "I wouldn't put the lives of my family in danger purely so I can further my own research. The Navi Project was almost complete, but I had some missing pieces, and I couldn't go any further with it, despite all the information I'd gotten from the people here. Around the same time that the project started to die out, one of my sons - the elder twin, Hub Hikari - became very ill, and it was unlikely that he would survive. We tried everything we could, but in the end, Hub died. Yet I couldn't let go. I used the soul of my dying son to finish the last pieces of the Navi Project, and he was reborn as MegaMan. It . . . I'm aware that this sounds utterly insane, and also extremely unethical, but . . . I couldn't let him go. I didn't want to. He'd barely begun to live, and I didn't want Lan to grow up without a brother, without someone to look out for him or someone to understand him, or vice versa. MegaMan became that person."

"I couldn't let go either," Haruka said gently, placing a hand on her husband's shoulder. "I'm glad you used Hub's soul to create MegaMan. He's our son as much as Lan is, and I love them both."

"I'm glad too, Dad!" Lan cried, running over to give Dr. Hikari a quick but firm hug. "MegaMan's my best friend in the whole world, and I wouldn't trade him for _anything_."

Chaud glanced at the scientists in the room, to judge their reaction to Dr. Hikari's story. They seemed less hostile now, and more understanding - a few of them were even nodding as if they would have done the same thing, and it struck Chaud that they most likely had children as well.

" . . . So," Professor Hestia said after a few moments, "the Navi that you want us to take a look at is, in fact, your son?"

"That's right," Dr. Hikari agreed.

For a moment, Professor Hestia didn't reply. Then he smiled.

"Then we'll just have to do everything we can to make sure he gets fixed," he said. "Right, everyone?"

The scientists called out their agreement. The woman wearing the aviator hat came around to Professor Hestia's side, and stood there with her arms crossed and a wild smirk on her face. Chaud got the impression she was probably the most eccentric one of the bunch.

"Now, why don't you jack MegaMan into the scanner, and we'll find out the extent of the damage?" Professor Hestia said to Lan.

"Um," Lan said.

"What is it?"

"Dad installed a wheelchair program for MegaMan, is that gonna be a problem for the scan, or . . .?"

Professor Hestia shook his head. "No need to worry, the machine only scans a Navi - not a program. Provided he doesn't move during the scan, it'll be fine."

"I don't think him moving will a problem," Lan murmured sadly, going over to the jack-in port on the scanner. Without any of his usual fanfare, he jacked MegaMan into the scanner, and then backed away to allow the scientists to do their work.

It took them half an hour to scan MegaMan. Once they were done, the data was stored onto several of the computers around the scanner machine, and Lan was told he could jack MegaMan out.

He did so, and a couple of the scientists examined the data briefly before giving Professor Hestia a report.

" . . . A broken spine," the professor repeated, shocked. "Something actually hit him hard enough to _break his spine_?"

Dex stepped forward, shame-faced. "That was me, and my Navi," he admitted. "Me and Lan were battling and it . . . went wrong. Really, really wrong. And I'm really sorry about it."

"You're honest and genuinely apologetic," Professor Hestia noted. "Most wouldn't have the guts to own up to something like this, let alone apologise for it. Well done, lad."

Dex gave him a hesitant but grateful smile.

Professor Hestia gave him a nod, and turned to Lan. "The good news is, we can fix his spine," he said. Lan grinned. "The bad news is that we aren't able to do it right away. Even tiny fractures take a while to heal, and this is . . . this is something we've never even seen before. We're going to need to do a lot more scans, and examine the data a lot more thoroughly, before we even begin to attempt to fix his spine. We also need to practise on some dummy Navis, because we don't want or need any mistakes."

"I don't care how long it takes," Lan told him. "I just want MegaMan to be okay again. Thank you, Professor Hestia. And everyone else, too."

"Hey, no worries, kiddo," the scientist with the artful hair spoke up, waving a hand like it was no big deal.

"We can fix him," a bald scientist said. "We have the technology."

"Unless we want him to stay dead," the woman with the aviator hat suddenly said.

There was a long, awkward pause in which everyone stared at her.

"Arin," Professor Hestia eventually sighed, "one of these days, people are going to take you seriously about this stuff."

"Pfff, my own daughter doesn't take me seriously," the woman - Arin - laughed.

"That is both sad and not surprising at all." Professor Hestia turned to the group of Electopians, who were still a little shocked. "Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce Dr. Arin Zaliki, who is what you would call a 'jack of all trades'. She dabbles in every bit of science she can find, although she specialises in electronics. She handles the design and creation of PETs here at the Navi Research Labs, and also has a very bad habit of vanishing for days on end without a word."

"Hey, I'm a busy woman," Arin defended herself lazily.

" . . . Right," Dr. Hikari said hesitantly. "So, how long do you need for the initial data analysis?"

"Give us . . . hmm . . . say, two days? Should that be enough time?" Professor Hestia asked, glancing around at the scientists. They nodded, and he nodded back and turned to Dr. Hikari again. "Two days, then. If we're done before then, I'll give you a call. If not, just come back here and see how we're doing. Dr. Hikari, would you like to give us a hand?"

"I'll see to this lot first," Dr. Hikari said, smiling. "Then I'll come by tomorrow. Is that alright?"

"More than alright," Professor Hestia agreed. "Should I sent someone to pick you up, or do you remember the way here?"

"This room may have changed, as has the city itself, but I think I can remember how to get around," Dr. Hikari politely declined. "Thank you anyway."

Professor Hestia nodded, and then looked at Lan. "I apologise for making this sound like a demand or an order, but you'll need to keep yourself available as much as possible over the next few days. After we've completed our initial analysis of this first batch of data, we're going to need you to come back and jack MegaMan into the scanner a few more times before we can gather all the data. We need multiple scans just in case previous scans missed something that others could pick up, you see."

"It's okay, I get it," Lan said, nodding. "I wasn't really planning on exploring the city until MegaMan started to get better anyway."

Professor Hestia smiled sympathetically, and then shooed them all out of the room good-naturedly.

This time it was Dr. Hikari who led the group to the tram station, where everyone got their own tickets for the tram. Before they actually got their tickets, however, Dr. Hikari stood in front of the group.

"Alright," he said, "I'm heading to the Haven District to the hotel I booked us into. Who's coming with me and who wants to explore the city?"

"I'm going to the hotel," Tory immediately said.

"Same," Lan agreed.

"Yeah," Maylu said, "I think I've had enough excitement for today. I'll explore tomorrow."

"Well, _I_ wanna go and check out the festival some more," Yai said, offended that the others would dare to chose rest in a city like this. It seemed her earlier unimpressed reaction had vanished.

"Me too, me too! I wanna get some of those toffee apples!" Dex agreed enthusiastically.

"They have toffee apples?" Lan gaped. "Aw, I didn't even see them . . . Could you get me one?"

"Sure, Lan."

"In that case, I'll go with Dex and Yai," Haruka said. "Just to keep them out of trouble."

"I would _never_ get into trouble," Yai huffed, like the very idea offended her.

"What about you, Chaud?" Dr. Hikari asked, turning to him.

Chaud met his eyes for a brief moment, and then glanced at the others. Dr. Hikari knew very well what his answer would be, but not asking him would just raise suspicion.

"I think I'll go explore the other districts first," he said, because it was technically true anyway. "I'll be fine on my own, don't worry."

"Are you sure?" Haruka asked, clearly worried anyway.

"I've been to a lot of places on my own," Chaud reassured her. "I can take care of myself, Mrs. Hikari."

"Just Haruka is fine, dear."

"Okay, Haruka."

"Aw, man, how come he gets to go around on his own and we gotta be supervised?" Dex whined.

"Because you're loud and Yai is a little kid," Maylu told him flatly.

"What exactly does my age have to do with anything?" Yai demanded.

"What does my _volume_ gotta do with anything?" Dex also wondered.

Chaud shook his head in amusement and left them to their argument. He went over to the ticket stations and used his Frequent Pass to get a ticket to the Historical District.

 **oooo**

The Historical District was three tram stations away from the Science District, but it didn't take too long to get there, just over half an hour in fact. This time, he'd thought ahead and had gotten ProtoMan to download a map of the district at one of the jack-in ports at the Science Station, so when he stepped out into the Historical District, he didn't get lost immediately.

This district was just as unique as the other two he'd been to so far. Chaud had a feeling that every single district in the city was vastly different from the others, and that actually made him feel quite excited at the thought of exploring it properly.

But not right now, though. He had a mission at the moment.

"Take a right at the ancient predators museum," ProtoMan said.

Yep, that's right, a museum. There were a lot of museums around this particular district, mainly focusing on history - he had yet to see any art galleries or any museums focusing on science or space travel, but then he supposed those types of museums were in the corresponding districts. The Historical District wasn't all museums, however, it just seemed that way because of how old some of the buildings and the streets looked. This was probably on purpose, to suit the aesthetic needs of the district.

Even the walkways looked like something from a history book. Instead of the dark grey colour that the walkways in the Gate and Science Districts were painted with, these were a mixture of 'old' looking colours, like musky browns and concrete greys. Even the lighting of the district was somewhat muted, probably to maintain the overal historical feel of the district, and the Sun Pyramid in the centre of the city was even getting in on the act, although the light at the tip was still glowing the same bright colour as the rest of the pyramid lights.

Chaud decided he liked this place, although he was withholding his judgement of the entire city until he'd seen every district. Then he could decide on a favourite.

"Just keep going until you reach the end of the street," ProtoMan said, once Chaud had gone past the ancient predators museum. "Once you get there, you'll see two streets branching off. You'll need to take the left one."

"Got it," Chaud agreed. He had the PET in his hand just in case anyone thought he was crazy for apparently talking to himself, and it also had the added benefit of allowing ProtoMan to see the same things he was seeing.

"This place is really nice," ProtoMan commented, while Chaud walked down the street. "It's quieter than the other districts we've been to, but it's nice. Peaceful."

"I suppose that's because it's the Historical District - everything about history just seems . . . peaceful, I guess," Chaud said. "Or, well, not exactly peaceful, since some parts of history are extremely violent and not at all child-friendly. It's the _study_ of history that's peaceful. Not history itself."

"I know what you mean," his Navi assured him.

Chaud reached the end of the street within minutes, and took the left branching street as ProtoMan had instructed. Then he followed ProtoMan's directions until he came to a quiet little street tucked away against one of the cavern walls.

Curious, he glanced up, and spotted a few windows dotted about on the cavern wall. He peered closer and couldn't see anything inside them, not even in the windows closer to ground-level. Hm. Interesting.

He lowered his eyes and spotted a small antique shop in the middle of the small street. It didn't stand out at all, the windows didn't appear to display anything too exotic, and once again there was a sign with writing he couldn't read.

Chaud went in.

There was a young woman reading a magazine behind the counter, and she looked up as the bell above the door tinkled, warning her of a new customer. She put down her magazine and smiled at him.

"Nice weather we're having today, huh?" she asked cheerfully.

"Yes, but I always carry an umbrella," Chaud replied. Time to see if this worked.

The young woman's smile turned from cheerful to professional in an instant, and she reached under the counter. Then she gestured to the back room of the antique shop silently.

Chaud nodded to her and went in.

Upon first glance, the back room was just like any other storage space - it was full of antiques and boxes that the woman had yet to sell or was planning to put on display, and one wall was entirely bare of anything touching it.

It was this wall that Chaud faced, and it was here that he hesitated.

"What're the chances that this didn't work and I'm about to faceplant into a solid wall?" he wondered.

"About forty percent," ProtoMan replied.

"Thanks," Chaud deadpanned.

Oh well, no time like the present.

He took a quick breath, steeling himself for what he was convinced was going to be a complete failure, and started walking towards the wall. As he was about to walk into it, he couldn't help it, he cringed and closed his eyes.

Yet no collision came.

After a moment, he dared to open his eyes, and breathed a sigh of relief.

He'd walked through the holographic wall in the back room - which would've otherwise been a completely solid wall if the young woman hadn't pressed that hidden switch - and now he was inside of a clean grey corridor. It went straight for a few metres, and ended at a T-section.

Then he spotted the woman striding towards him.

"You took your sweet time getting here," Dr. Arin Zaliki greeted him, grinning wildly.

 **OOOOOO**

And we finally meet a couple of OCs in this fic, Professor Hestia and Dr. Arin Zaliki!

Arin is actually most commonly just called Arin, since she doesn't care about her title as a doctor or whatever. She's just called Dr. Arin Zaliki in this chapter because that's how she was introduced.

While these two are major OCs, they are in no way the only major OCs. There are still other OCs who need to be introduced, including the one who Chaud will be interacting with the most, whose name and identity I will not give away because spoilers.

Anyway, moving on.

I promised a full chapter of Chaud's POV, and I delivered! I did want to include the rest of what I had planned for this, but I decided to end it here instead because it seemed more dramatic to have the chapter end like this instead of however it would've ended had I kept writing.

Just to clarify in case anyone wants to know, Professor Hestia doesn't hate or disdain Arin in any way. I know it kinda seemed like that when he introduced her to the Electopian guys, but I didn't intend it to seem that way, I just wanted to write her character.

Also, who loves the fact that her first ever line in this fic, and the first thing she says to any one of the main canon characters, is 'unless we want him to stay dead'? She's kinda like that, and I'm intending her character to be the typical 'mad scientist' type.

That particular line, including the one from the scientist who said they have the technology to fix MegaMan, are referencing another fic called _Reploid Anatomy 101_ , a fic about the _MegaMan X_ series. If you like the _X_ series, I suggest you go and read it, because goddamn is that a good fic.

Speaking of lines being references, did anyone notice that little exchange in the antique shop? Also the entire shop itself, and the fact that Chaud walked through a secret door?

Well, holographic wall, but same difference.

In case anyone doesn't get it, that was a reference to _Captain America: The First Avenger_. That scene where Peggy takes Steve into the secret lab, to be specific. The dialogue is almost directly taken from that scene.

Anyway.

Next chapter, we'll get to see what all this is about, and hopefully I can write ProtoMan's POV as well.

Read and review!


	5. Chapter 5 - The Underground NetBattlers

Warning, this chapter will be very dialogue-heavy.

Then again, not counting the prologue/first chapter, it's all been more or less dialogue-heavy, hasn't it? But this chapter is less moving around and talking and more sitting-in-the-same-place and talking. You'll find out why when we get to the actual chapter.

I think I should tell you guys right here, there's actually eight districts in total in Nowhere City, not including the marina. I won't tell you exactly what they are, since I'm hopefully gonna get to write them all at least once in this story, but we've already been to three and we know about a fourth one that we're almost _certainly_ gonna visit.

What district am I talking about, you ask?

The Cultural District, AKA the district of art! From the tram station alone, you can probably tell it's the most lively and colourful, not to mention expressive, of the districts. I have all sorts of designs planned for it, and I can't wait to write them down for you guys to see in your mind's eye. Everyone's interpretation of what I write is gonna be different, including how I interpret my own words, and honestly this is just gonna be utterly perfect for the Cultural District because that's basically its entire thing.

Man, I wanna write that district already, but first we gotta get Chaud's secret mission outta the way.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Arin - because she apparently preferred to be called Arin rather than Dr. Zaliki - led him through various corridors and rooms, humming a song Chaud didn't know and walking with a slight bounce in her step.

For a scientist, she was oddly cheery.

"I don't understand why we couldn't tell the others about this," ProtoMan said.

Chaud took out his PET and looked at him.

"Aren't you the one who convinced me to not feel guilty?" he asked.

"Well, yes, but this is entirely different - we needed to get into the city, which we did, yet once we were in, we technically had no reason to keep it between us," ProtoMan pointed out, crossing his arms. "I mean, it's not like this organisation is _illegal_ , just secret."

"If anyone else had come with us, they probably wouldn't have let us in," Chaud replied. "Only the leaders of the NetBattlers and a select few Officials even know these people exist, and even then they were reluctant about it."

"The Underground NetBattlers are reluctant about a lot of things," ProtoMan muttered.

"Not true," Arin said from up ahead. She was looking over her shoulder at them. "We just operate differently to you guys - like you said, we're not illegal, just secret, and we prefer to keep it that way. Though we do realise this is impractical in some cases, such as the rest of the NetBattlers not knowing we exist, so we need to have a few of you guys knowing about us."

" . . . And the fact that they decided to send a child to meet you people doesn't bother you at all?" Chaud wondered. He'd been wondering that for a while actually. Arin hadn't said a word about his age and she certainly hadn't made any comments like 'oh, I'd expected Dr. Hikari's wife or something'.

"Nope!" Arin declared happily. "And if it did, I'd be a hypocrite."

Well, okay then.

Arin took him through another set of doors, these ones a little more impressive than the others, which opened into a room with a huge blank monitor on one wall and a round table in the middle of the room. There were four chairs at the table, and in one of these chairs sat a man with wild red hair and a dark blue headband. He seemed to be asleep.

"Roahm!" Arin said loudly. "Roahm, wake up, we got company!"

The red-haired man grumbled and lifted his head from the table, looking at her - and then Chaud - with bleary eyes. It took a moment for it to register that he was looking at a complete stranger.

"Hi, haven't seen you before," the man, Roahm, greeted him politely.

"Hello, sir," Chaud replied.

"No 'sirs' around here, little man, we're all equal," Roahm informed him.

"Um . . . sure."

"Roahm, this is the guy those Electopian people sent to meet us," Arin said to the man. "His name's . . . uhh . . ."

"What's your name?" Roahm asked, not missing a beat.

"Chaud," Chaud replied. He held up his PET and ProtoMan waved. "And this is ProtoMan."

"Cool. Sasha Roahm, just call me Roahm, everyone else does," Roahm said, nodding to him with a smile. "You'll meet my Navis in a while."

Chaud nodded, and then paused. Did he say Navis? As in, plural?

"Where's Kris and Gunter?" Arin asked, looking around as if she expected whoever Kris and Gunter were to be hiding inside the room.

Other than the round table and the monitor, there wasn't anything else in the room. The only doors into the room were the ones that he and Arin had come through, and even though he couldn't see any source of light, the room was somehow bright. It seemed like this was some sort of meeting room, maybe where the leaders of the organisation met.

Although he couldn't imagine either of these two being leaders. Arin seemed too eccentric and Roahm was . . . well, too polite. Also he'd been asleep.

"Gunter's . . . somewhere," Roahm said, shrugging. "I honestly don't know. Kris had to leave for a while, something to do with a new recruit breaking part of the VR system again."

"Aw, man, if she'd waited I could've fixed it for her," Arin sighed.

"And added about ten new features that we don't need."

"The features would be cool, though," the mad scientist insisted.

"True," Roahm admitted, "they would be cool. But extremely impractical." He glanced at Chaud and gave him a smirk. "The last time we let her fix something around here, we ended up with a fully-functional robotic fridge that insisted on being called Jerry. Unless it's really important and she's the only person who can fix it, we don't let her near our electronics when they're broken."

" . . . No offence, but you people are weird," Chaud said, mildly concerned. These people were notorious for staying in the shadows? They seemed more like they'd dance naked in the spotlight if given half a chance.

"No offence taken," Arin beamed.

"We are indeed weird," Roahm agreed, with a sagely nod.

"We do weird things on a regular basis," Arin went on.

"Very regular," Roahm agreed again.

"It'd be funny if it didn't happen so often."

"It's still funny, though."

"We don't act like professionals at all."

"Not even remotely."

"We do weird things far too often to be considered professionals."

"Oh, yes, we definitely do."

"Things like me making a robot fridge."

"Other things like me accidentally flooding the mess hall."

"I once created a PET with legs."

"We still have yet to find it."

"And Gunter just _will not_ stop blasting that stupid 1900s rock."

"We do other weird things, too."

Arin nodded. "Like human sacrifice." She looked at Chaud and frowned. "Why are you backing away from me?"

The doors opened suddenly, and a man with extremely short black hair and a mildly annoyed frown stepped in.

"Stop tormenting him," the man said.

"Hey, man," Roahm greeted him. "Chaud, this is Gunter. And we were joking about the human sacrifice thing, you can stop freaking out now."

"The human sacrifce thing again?" Gunter sighed, shaking his head and taking the seat to Roahm's left. "One of these days, you'll say something like that to a new recruit, and they'll bail the moment they're able to."

"We'd have to wipe their memory first," Arin said. Chaud wasn't sure whether or not she was joking, and before he got a chance to ask - or before Gunter could deny or confirm it - the doors once again slid open.

This time, it was a woman sitting in a crimson and black wheelchair who came in.

"Kris!" Arin cried brightly, leaning down to give the woman a quick hug. "Did you sort out the VR thing? Please say no."

"I'll have to disappoint you there, I'm afraid," the woman, Kris, laughed.

"Damn."

"Alright, alright, enough weirdness - take a seat," Kris said. Arin did so without a complaint, and Kris turned her attention to Chaud and gave him a kind but polite smile. "So, you're the Official the Electopian NetBattlers sent to meet us. I'm Kris Landy, one of the four leaders of the Underground NetBattlers."

"Also the supreme leader," Gunter spoke up.

"That too, but really it's just a honorary title more than anything," Kris admitted. "Would you like to take a seat? We'll get started with our meeting as soon as I get the Navi monitor online."

A little confused, Chaud took the only available seat left - between Arin and Gunter - and watched Kris mess with a control panel under the giant monitor that he hadn't noticed before. After a moment, the monitor flickered blue and suddenly divided into six sections on-screen.

"Jack in, everyone," Kris said, taking out a PET that was the same colour as her wheelchair.

Chaud glanced at them all as they took out their own PETs - Arin's was yellow and black, Gunter's was white with black streaks, and Roahm himself had two, a green one and a blue one. For a moment he was confused, as he couldn't see any obvious jack-in ports, but then they all pointed their PETs at the monitor itself.

One by one, Navis appeared in the different panels on-screen, until there was only a single empty space left at the bottom right.

"The monitor is basically just a giant screen," Kris explained, seeing Chaud's confusion. "We use it mainly to properly include our Navis in meetings such as this, but sometimes we do live announcements to the rest of HQ via the monitor. Almost every room in HQ has a monitor like this, although this one is the only one where you're able to jack into the screen itself. Thank Arin for this marvel of technology."

"Ah," Arin said, shrugging, "wasn't just me. I had help from our R&D guys. But yeah it was _mostly_ me."

"Humble as ever," Roahm announced, flashing her a grin across the table. Arin returned it with another wild one of her own.

"Jack in your Navi and we can get to the proper introductions," Kris told Chaud.

He nodded and held out his PET to the screen. A moment later, ProtoMan's image appeared in the final empty panel, although Chaud still felt a little silly having just jacked into a freaking _screen_. Sure, it had worked, just like the holographic wall, but still.

"Moving on," Kris said. "You've probably already been introduced, but let's go over it all again. Would you like to start?"

"Sure," Chaud said, shrugging. Made no difference to him. "My name's Chaud, and my Navi is called ProtoMan. We're Official NetBattlers from DenTech City, in Electopia."

"ProtoMan . . . as in prototype?" Gunter asked.

"Uh," Chaud said, "yes?"

"Lemme guess, you chose the name because it sounded cool."

"Well, when you say it like that . . ."

"Alright, enough," Kris broke in. "Right then. I'm Kris Landy, and my Navi is the one in the top left corner there - his name's Livid. Say hi, Livid."

Kris's Navi was a standard Navi with unusual crimson and black armour. He also had the same upside-down triangle eyes that people usually associated with standard UnderNet Navis. But when he spoke, he was perfectly polite and didn't at all seem to live up to his name or design.

"Hello, Chaud," Livid said, inclining his head slightly. "Hello, ProtoMan."

"Uh, hello," ProtoMan replied, sounding a bit startled. "I'm sorry, I don't mean to be rude, but usually your type of Navi is one that Chaud and I only see in the UnderNet. And they're not typically very friendly."

"Then I hope I can change your view of my style," Livid decided calmly.

"Me next!" Arin volunteered, waving a hand in the air. "Arin Zaliki, as you know, and my Navi is the one next to Livid there."

The Navi next to Livid was a black jackal-like Navi with strange golden markings around his eyes and a golden collar around his neck. "Name's Jackal," the Navi said. "Before you ask, yes, I'm based on Anubis. Except for my tail."

"Anubis doesn't have a tail," Arin pointed out.

"Yet you gave me one anyway. And for some reason it looks like a lightning rod."

"You're an Elec-elemental, I thought you'd appreciate the effort."

"It makes me look ridiculous."

"It makes you look awesome."

Jackel rolled his eyes.

"Next, before we lose track of what's going on again," Kris interrupted.

"Gunter Red, and my Navi is the one at the top right," Gunter said, gesturing to the humanoid Navi on the end of the top row. She had black and white armour and a relaxed smirk on her face, but what made her unique were the two boomboxes attached to the back of her shoulders.

"Racket's the name," she introduced herself with all the arrogance of someone who was good at their job and damn well knew it, "and kicking booty is my game. Also playing hardcore rock. That genre is my _jam_ , bro."

"It's my jam too," Gunter agreed. "Gotta love 1900s rock, right Racket?"

"For real."

Chaud had a feeling he would get tired of talking to those two very quickly.

"And finally," Roahm spoke up, "me. Sasha Roahm, and the two on the bottom row next to your ProtoMan are Woodchip and Mythril. They're both my Navis."

It was fairly obvious which one was which - Woodchip was the green and brown squirrel-like humanoid Navi who nodded at Chaud, and Mythril was the dragon (an actual dragon, not just a dragon-like Navi or a humanoid dragon, but an actual, _proper_ dragon) who appeared have a body made entirely from blue crystal. Although when she lifted a wing to wave, Chaud realised that she was more of a wyvern than a dragon.

"You're probably wondering why there're four leaders and not just one or two," Kris said, getting down to business now that proper introductions were over. "Well, that's easily explained - Nowhere City is far too big and the responsibility of protecting it is far too complicated for just two people. We're each the heads of different parts of the city. For example, as you're already aware, Arin is a scientist - she generally keeps an open mind about all types of science so she can keep an eye on everything she can, but specialises in electronics and, well, inventing things."

Arin nodded. "That's so I can be sure to keep an eye on any potentially-dangerous experiments or inventions that may crop up. Not all of them are intentionally dangerous, but hey, accidents and mistakes happen, and I'm there to help sort it all out."

"Gunter and Racket are in charge of our early-warning system," Kris went on. "Also anything from school bells to fire alarms."

"And everything in between," Gunter agreed. "I'm also in charge of any alarm drills that the city council plans, such as rockslide drills or cave-in drills. In the event of an actual emergency, I'm to oversee the evacuation of the citizens and keep things as calm as possible."

"Roahm here is actually technically in charge of three things," Kris said. "He's the head of special operations outside the city, and oversees the protection of the marina. He also leads the DoubleNavi Program."

Chaud frowned and looked to Roahm for an explanation.

"I have two Navis, why not?" Roahm shrugged. "Woodchip is the special operations Navi and helps me direct any and all operations outside the city, not to mention he actually does quite a few himself. Mythril, obviously, helps me safeguard the marina - she takes it very seriously, don't you, Mythril?"

"The marina Net is where my shiny things are," Mythril said, "of course I take it seriously. I take my shinies very seriously." She looked at ProtoMan with narrowed eyes, which, considering the fact that she was a dragon, was extremely intimidating. "Touch my shinies and die."

"I'm not interested in your . . . shinies," ProtoMan quickly assured her.

"Good. You have white hair. It's vaguely shiny."

"Thank you?"

"I want it."

"Mythril," Roahm warned her. She turned her gaze to him and sighed, subsiding for the moment. "Anyway. The DoubleNavi Program is exactly what it sounds like - it's for people who have more than one Navi. Not just two, because some of our NetBattlers actually have three or four Navis, so despite the name anyone with more than one Navi is welcome. It's a special ops program that gives out assignments more suited to those with two or more Navis. It's not just exclusively those missions, though, since most day-to-day assignments aren't actually dangerous enough to warrant the need for more than one Navi."

"NetBattlers who're part of the DoubleNavi Program are also more likely to receive assignments outside of the city," Kris added.

"Having two or more Navis means that the Navis and the NetOp are more independent than most," Roahm said, nodding. "They also automatically become special ops the moment they join the program. Sometimes Navis get assignments on their own, as well. In fact, Woodchip's leaving for an assignment with one of Tanner's Navis tomorrow, aren't you?"

Woodchip nodded. "There are some digi-vines cluttering up the servers in the Haven District, nothing too major, but the authorities suspect there might be a Navi responsible for the mess. I'm there to examine the vines, and Boom is coming along for bodyguard purposes. Also to blow up the vines when I figure out how to get rid of them."

"And finally," Kris said, "I'm the head of the security force. I oversee the protection of the entire city on a day-to-day basis, and the safety of its citizens in times of an emergency. I also created the Check System."

"The Check System?" Chaud repeated.

"I'm sure you noticed how lax security was when you first arrived in the city?"

Chaud nodded.

"Well, that was just the human side of things. The technological side of security is the complete opposite. The Check System is a security check that every single person and Navi goes through every time they enter or leave the city. It scans for dangerous objects or intents, and alerts the nearest NetBattlers and myself if someone with something to hide is discovered."

"I didn't notice any sort of check when I came in," Chaud said, frowning.

"Exactly," Kris said. "It's all done secretly, so if you're not about to commit some sort of crime, you won't even know the check happened and you can go about your business. But if you set off an alarm, the security team at the Gondola station keeps you there until the Underground NetBattlers get there to take you in for questioning. If it's related to NetCrime, we deal with the would-be criminal personally. If not, we hand them over to the police and leave it to them. The scanners are located inside the frames of each of the city's gates, with the most powerful ones being in the Gate District's entrance, since that's our main entrance."

"Wow," Chaud said, thoroughly impressed now. "And I didn't even notice it happening . . . ProtoMan, did you notice anything?"

"Not at all," ProtoMan replied. "This system is _extremely_ impressive, if it can stay undetected even to the most tech-savvy of Navis."

"Thank you," Kris said with a smile. "Alright, we've made our introductions and explained our roles here. So, Chaud, did your superiors brief you on what your mission is in this city?"

"Well, I'm not entirely certain as to the specifics, but I've been assigned to sort of shadow one of your operatives for a few weeks," Chaud explained. "I guess how long this assignment lasts depends on how long it takes for MegaMan to make a full recovery, though."

"Yes, that's right," Kris agreed. "Your mission is basically to see how we operate, isn't it? Do you know why we're allowing this, when normally we don't allow any foreign NetBattlers anywhere near the city?"

"Not . . . exactly," Chaud admitted. "All I was told is that the Underground NetBattlers prefer to work from the shadows rather than in full view of the citizens. No regular citizens in the city even know you people exist."

"And we would have kept it that way for anyone outside the city, too," Kris agreed, with a nod. "Fortunately, we realised that this was completely impractical, since it meant that we wouldn't be able to ask for help from our own country or even foreign countries should the need arise. So we got in touch with the leaders of our country's public NetBattler society and allowed them to know about us, and eventually contacted various foreign NetBattler societies and did the same. We made sure that only the higher-ups of the NetBattlers and a select few trusted Officials knew of our existence."

"So why change it all so suddenly?" Chaud asked.

"Because we decided to reach out, as it were." Surprisingly, it was Livid who answered the question. "The relationship between the Underground NetBattlers and any Official NetBattlers society is . . . rocky at best. They don't trust us because we shroud ourselves in shadow, and we don't trust them because it is not our nature. We discussed this among ourselves and proposed the question to the rest of our operatives, and collectively we reached a conclusion."

"To allow others to see how we do things, and hopefully build some sort of relationship with the other societies so they aren't reluctant to help us or accept our help," Kris said. "We asked the foreign NetBattler societies to send a trusted Official to shadow one of our own operatives, and the Electopian society volunteered. And now, obviously, you are here."

Chaud was quiet for a moment, giving himself a chance to think it all over.

So this was why his superiors had asked him to keep this a secret from everyone - because this was a once-in-a-lifetime oppertunity, and screwing it all up by letting something slip out carelessly could ruin any relations between Nowhere and every other NetBattler society on the planet.

Yet it wasn't the foreign NetBattlers who had reached out, which was why everyone was being so careful about this, and probably why they'd sent him. The Underground NetBattlers were breaking their own traditions because, while they definitely preferred to work secretly, they also realised that there were merits in making friends. But it could all come tumbling down in an instant if these people decided they didn't like him.

It wasn't going to be easy, but he hadn't offended or annoyed them so far, and everyone seemed perfectly fine with how he was reacting to their . . . weirdness. So yes, he and ProtoMan had probably been the best choice for this mission.

"Thank you for having me," Chaud said, inclining his head in a nod of thanks.

Kris waved her hand. "No need for thanks, and please don't bow like that, we're all equals here."

"I told him that," Roahm said, "but I think he's one of those 'anyone above me deserves my utmost respect and I must bow because I am a samurai' types."

"I'm pretty sure that's not how samurai work," Gunter said.

"Hush, you."

"It'll be up to the operative you shadow to give you a tour of the HQ, the city, and the marina if need be," Kris said, ignoring them both. "You'll also follow them while they go about their daily business, such as training sessions, daily assignments or special assignments if they get one, and whatever else you feel they should show you - or whatever they feel they should show you. Arin, I believe you have someone in mind for this?"

"Yup," Arin agreed.

"Don't suppose you could tell us?"

Arin frowned and didn't reply for a moment. "Nah," the scientist eventually decided. "It'll ruin the surprise."

Kris shrugged. "Fair enough. Just don't hand him over to a complete lunatic, alright? He seems like a good kid and I don't want him corrupted because you thought it'd be funny to give him to someone like Tanner or Rose."

"It's not Tanner or Rose, don't worry."

"That's somewhat of a relief. Alright, meeting adjourned - everyone back to your usual duties. Chaud, follow Arin and she'll take you to whoever she's chosen for you. If you ever need any help, don't hesitate to ask for any one of us."

"Thank you," Chaud said again.

 **oooo**

Once again he was led through a seemingly-endless maze of corridors, hallways, and various rooms. Chaud was beginning to suspect that the layout of the HQ was misleading on purpose, but he didn't press for answers. They weren't about to give up all of their secrets, especially to a stranger like him.

Arin finally slowed down after several minutes of walking, stopping in front of a door with a plaque that had letters he couldn't read. Again. This was gonna become a problem at some point, he just knew it.

"This is one of the less-used common rooms in HQ," Arin explained. "There's a whole bunch of others, but this is the smallest - which is exactly where we'll find the operative you'll be shadowing. And don't worry, they are professionals, no matter how crazy they all act."

And without further ado, she opened the door and went inside. Chaud followed.

The common room was about the size of a small classroom, but it definitely wasn't a classroom. Like the meeting room, there was a huge monitor built into the wall, this one on the wall at the back of the room, directly opposite the door. There was a long table with three holographic computer screens set up on it a few feet away from the monitor, with three chairs at each of the screens - the only human in the room sat in the middle chair, playing some sort of digital card game. There was some music playing in the background, _Hero_ by Skillet, and a couple of round tables with some other chairs at those tables too.

Chaud glanced at the large monitor on the wall briefly, just barely registering the Navi that was there, and then he had to do a double take and he stared at it in shock.

Why?

Because the Navi didn't have a face.

Its entire head was smooth and featureless, except for the headphone-like discs that most Navis had in place of ears. There was another disc on its chest, and the NaviMark inside was completely blank. In fact, the faceless Navi's entire body was smooth and featureless and blank, also impossibly thin for a humanoid Navi (although he'd seen thinner, such as SkullMan, but then again SkullMan was literally bones), not to mention extremely pale-skinned.

"I play Nope," the Navi said, somehow, and Chaud was surprised at the voice. He hadn't known what he'd been expecting to hear, but a smooth, monotone voice certainly wasn't it. "Now you must draw."

"Damn you," the person sitting in the chair muttered, shifting forward. He - they sounded like a 'he', anyway - moved a card across his computer screen from the deck to a vertical line of cards on the left side of his screen. The faceless Navi had its own vertical line of cards, except only the back could be seen from this side so only the Navi could see what they were.

A moment passed, and then the person cursed violently.

"You received yet another Exploding Kitten," the faceless Navi on the screen said. Its tone remained perfectly monotone, yet the way it tilted its head portrayed its amusement somehow.

 _Exploding what-now?_ Chaud wondered silently. Why was a kitten exploding? And why did the person get one? What?

"I hate this game," the person announced, leaning back in his chair. "I hate you, too, but mostly I hate this game. I _keep losing_."

"Perhaps if you had more Defusers," the faceless Navi suggested, with a graceful shrug. Just from that simple act, Chaud could tell this Navi moved just as smoothly as it looked, despite the unsettling appearance.

"I _would_ have more if I didn't have to use them two moves into the game," the person huffed. Then he paused, and leaned forward. "You're cheating at this, aren't you?"

"First of all, no, I am not. Second of all, you are the one who shuffled the deck. I could not have tampered with it even if I wished to. Your logic is highly flawed."

"Screw you," the person said.

Arin cleared her throat, and stepped forward.

The person turned around in his chair, looked at Arin, and spotted Chaud.

"No," he said immediately.

"Zoet, you don't even know what I'm going to say," Arin sighed.

"I don't care what you're gonna say, the answer is no," the person, Zoet, said.

"At least hear me out."

"Woman, I am currently in the middle of getting my ass kicked at my favourite card game," Zoet said flatly. "If you don't mind, I'd like to get back to it."

"You don't even know who he is!"

"I don't _care_ who he is, I want nothing to do with him."

"Do you remember that poll we had a while back?"

"Don't care."

"And Electopia volunteered one of their people to come here?"

"Still don't care."

"This is the guy they sent."

"Don't. Care."

"Say hi to Chaud."

" _Do you have a hearing problem_?"

"And Chaud," Arin said, ignoring Zoet entirely, "say hi to my daughter, Zoet."

Wait, what? _Daughter_?

"You're a girl?" Chaud asked incredulously, looking at Zoet in surprise.

"Oh, this should be good," Zoet muttered. He - she, apparently - stood up and faced Arin and Chaud properly, arms crossed and a bad-tempered frown on her face. "Yes, I'm a girl, numbnuts. The hell made you think I wasn't?"

"You look and sound like a boy," Chaud told her bluntly. The fact that she was wearing a dark-coloured sleeveless hoodie and baggy knee-length shorts didn't help. Nor did her hair, which was a lot shorter than his and apparently took after a hedgehog.

Zoet stared at him for a moment, eyes either extremely tired or extremely bored - or extremely annoyed. Maybe some weird combination of all three.

"You," she eventually said. "I don't like you. Mom. Why is this little brat here."

"At least give the child a chance before you dismiss him," the faceless Navi said behind her.

"Hush, you."

"I told you why he's here, he's the Official NetBattler from Electopia," Arin told her daughter.

"That's great. But why is he here, specifically in this room, annoying the hell outta me?"

"You remember the agreement that the Underground NetBattlers made with the foreigners?"

"No."

"The agreement was to have their Official, whomever they decided to send, shadow one of our own people to see how the Underground NetBattlers operate, to better strengthen the relationship between the different societies," the faceless Navi said.

"Yep!" Arin agreed cheerfully. "That's it exactly."

It took a moment for Zoet to reply. "So," she said slowly, suspiciously, "the reason he's here is . . ."

"You're the operative he's gonna shadow for however long he's here," Arin informed her.

Zoet glared at her mother, and then turned that glare on Chaud. It was very intimidating and Chaud resisted the urge to back away. He had a feeling that Zoet was the kind of person who could beat him six ways to Sunday and wouldn't lose any sleep over it. In fact, she'd probably be happy to beat him up.

"The hell he is," Zoet snapped. "Woman, I don't play well with others, we agreed on that ages ago. So why the hell're you making me babysit this brat?"

"I'm not a brat and you won't be babysitting me," Chaud said, feeling extremely insulted.

"Virus," Zoet said loudly.

Chaud was confused for a moment, until the faceless Navi on the screen behind her spoke up.

"Babysit - to look after a child or children while the parents are out," the faceless Navi recited. "Essentially, to be responsible for the wellbeing of anyone who is not considered old enough, knowledgeable enough, or mature enough to be responsible for their own safety."

"See? Babysitting," Zoet agreed, giving Chaud a smug look.

He gave her a dirty one in return, and Arin sighed heavily.

"One tub of ice cream," she said.

Chaud turned to her, confused, but apparently Zoet knew what she was talking about.

"Three," she countered.

"One."

"Two, and I want week off from school."

"You know I can't do that."

"Jelly beans, then."

"Deal."

"Thank you," Zoet said. She looked at Chaud. "I'm babysitting you now. Be happy."

"What just happened?" Chaud wondered.

 **oooo**

Arin didn't immediately abandon Chaud to Zoet, who he was pretty sure was currently plotting his murder, so at least that was something. He'd jacked ProtoMan into one of the computers on the long table, and he appeared on the monitor next to the faceless Navi - Virus - a moment later. Arin jacked in Jackel as well, just so he wouldn't be left out. Virus, as it turned out, was about the same size as ProtoMan, while Jackal was over a head taller than both of them.

"Greetings," Virus said, extending its hand. It had three fingers and a thumb, and all of them were extremely long and looked like claws.

ProtoMan examined the clawed hand for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to shake it without getting scratched, and eventually settled for just shaking Virus's palm and avoiding the claws as best as he could.

"I am Virus, one of Zoet's NetNavis," Virus went on, after they both let go. "I have a twin sister by the name of Flight. She is currently training using the VR system, although I believe 'pranking' may be a better word for it. The last I heard from her, she had just scared the living daylights out of Rex and Daybreak."

"Twin Navis," ProtoMan said, sounding interested. "You don't get many of those."

"You do not," Virus agreed.

"I think we've actually got a set of triplet Navis, too," Jackel spoke up from where he was leaning against a random data block. "Locke, Rocke, and Mocke. They look like crocodiles."

"They insist upon being called alligators now," Virus informed him.

"Last I spoke to them, they said crocodile was fine," Jackal muttered. "Either I was lied to or they changed it again."

"They do change their minds as swift as the wind," Virus agreed.

Meanwhile, the humans were getting to know each other as well - or Chaud was trying to get to know Zoet, who was stubbornly refusing to 'bond with a little brat', and Arin was having to play referee.

"'Zoet' is a name I made up," Arin explained, when Chaud asked about the weird name. "I love making up names, and Zoet's name is the best thing I've ever come up with."

"Normally I would disagree," Zoet said, "but you're right. This is a cool name."

"How did you come up with it?" Chaud asked.

"I was thinking about what to name my daughter when she was born, and for some reason the word 'poet' popped into my head," Arin replied, giggling a little. "But calling someone Poet is weird, even for me, so I messed around with the word a little until I came up with Zoet - which is basically just 'poet' with a Z instead of a P. So I made up a word and gave my daughter a unique name!"

Chaud nodded. "Zoet is a word," he informed them.

"What," Zoet said.

"It's Dutch. It means 'sweet'. It's also not pronounced like poet with a Z, it's more like zoot or something."

Zoet stared at him, and then glared at her mother. "You named me _Sweet_?" she demanded, offended.

"I didn't know it was a word!" Arin protested. "Besides, it's a foreign language, and the only language I know is this one. Certainly not Dutch. And also we pronounce it differently so therefore it's a different word."

Zoet looked unimpressed.

"I'm not listening to anymore of this," Zoet announced, and she turned to the screen. "Virus, transfer music to my headphones." She picked up a large pair of wireless headphones from the table and put them over her ears. They were completely black except for the golden rings around the discs, and inside those rings was a golden Z that closely resembled the NaviMark that Jackal had on the belt of his shendyt.

"Very well," Virus said, and a moment later, the music - which had changed to _Castle_ by Halsey after _Hero_ had finished - stopped playing. Zoet immediately turned to the deck of cards still displayed on the computer screen and started shuffling through it.

"Uh," Chaud said, looking at Arin. "Sorry?"

She didn't look too worried. "Ah, it's fine," Arin dismissed casually. "She'll ignore us for a few minutes and then she'll be back to insulting us, don't worry. It's when she ignores you for hours or days on end, that's when you've gotta worry."

" . . . Right," Chaud said.

There was a sudden bright white light from the screen on the wall, and as Chaud shielded his eyes from it, more spilled out in piercing rays. It took a few seconds for the light to die down, and when it did, he looked over at the screen, frowning.

And then he jumped out of his seat and gaped at the screen in shock.

There were two ProtoMans on the screen. One looked surprised while the other, whose NaviMarks were completely blank, didn't appear to have any kind of expression at all.

"What the hell?" Chaud blurted.

 **oooo**

"Why is your name Virus?" ProtoMan wondered, looking at the faceless Navi that was strangely the same height as he was. He'd expected it to be unnaturally tall, but, no, it wasn't. He wasn't sure if that was a relief.

Virus tilted its head. "It is so I do not forget the circumstances which led to this appearance," it explained in that smooth monotone voice. ProtoMan couldn't tell if it was male or female from the voice, but it hadn't protested when it had been called an 'it', so maybe that was the pronoun it preferred.

"And what are those circumstances?"

"That information is extremely private and I have no wish to tell you," Virus replied. "I apologise."

"Don't apologise, you don't need to tell me if you don't want to," ProtoMan said, with a shrug. He understood privacy, he wasn't a prick.

"However," Virus went on, "I can tell you that, in my base form, I am unable to use battle chips."

ProtoMan jerked in surprise. "What?" he asked.

"It means because of how its body is made up," Jackal spoke up. "See, Navis are all data and data-bones and whatever, right? But Virus, because of the circumstances that led to it looking like something from a bad horror movie, is completely different. It's actually seventy-two percent virus and only twenty-eight percent Navi, hence why it can't use battle chips, because those only work on Navis."

"I am still a NetNavi, it is just that my data is essentially corrupted," Virus clarified. "It is why I have no NaviMark. There is actually one battle chip that I am able to use no matter what form I may be in, however. It is a special chip that was created for me and only me, meaning it does not work for any other Navi, should they attempt to use it. Zoet's mother created it for me."

"So you're part virus?" ProtoMan frowned. "That . . . to be honest, that kind of explains a lot. No offence."

"I take none," Virus assured him.

"If you can't use most battle chips, then does that mean you don't have a basic attack either?" ProtoMan asked curiously.

"I do have a basic attack, actually. Two, in fact," Virus said, tilting its head the other way. "Both of these basic attacks were programmed into me by Arin Zaliki so I would not be defenceless in this form. The first is called Smile, and unfortunately I do not wish to show you this at the moment, as it would force you to jack out from this network. I apologise. However, I can show you my other basic attack, which is called Design Shift. If you would allow me to borrow your design for a moment?"

"Borrow my design?" ProtoMan repeated, confused.

"It's a shapeshifting move," Jackal helpfully explained. "Hence the name. Virus wants to use your design."

"It will not harm you, all I need to do is scan your data," Virus said to ProtoMan.

Zoet's raised voice interrupted whatever response ProtoMan would have had.

"I'm not listening to anymore of this," she announced. She looked at the screen. "Virus, transfer music to my headphones."

"Very well," Virus agreed, and it brought up a screen and moved a clawed finger along it, dragging a file labelled 'Castle - Halsey' from a program called Room Stereo to another one called Zoet's Headphones.

The music in the common room was transferred to Zoet's headphones and she immediately started to ignore the two humans either side of her.

"Would you like to see Design Shift?" Virus asked ProtoMan, as if nothing had happened.

"When you say 'scan my data', what exactly do you mean?" ProtoMan wondered, somewhat suspiciously.

"I am only able to scan a Navi's design data, essentially that which gives you the form we currently see," Virus explained. "For anything that is not a Navi, I am able to easily conduct a much deeper scan, but Navis are complicated data by design. I would not be stealing your basic attacks, or your memory data, or anything else. Only your design. If you do not consent to this, I do not mind. I can show you using Jackal's design instead, as I already have his design saved within my memory data."

"Well," ProtoMan said slowly, considering it, "if it's just my design data and nothing else . . ."

"I swear it upon my operator's life," Virus promised.

"It doesn't get much more honest than that," Jackal added. "Besides, it's got _my_ design data, and I'm fine."

"Alright then," ProtoMan agreed. "What do you need me to do?"

"Just stand still for a moment," Virus instructed him, and ProtoMan did as he was told while Virus reached out with its right hand. It gently took a hold of ProtoMan's NaviMark with the tips of its claws, and sparks flew from the NaviMark and into Virus's palm.

Three seconds later, the sparks were gone, and Virus retracted its hand.

"And now," Virus said, "Design Shift."

A bright white light began to shine out of all three of its blank NaviMarks, and then that light became sharp rays that threatened to blind ProtoMan. He shielded his eyes and watched as the light engulfed Virus's entire body, and through it he could just about see the faceless Navi's body changing.

A few seconds later, the light died down, and suddenly ProtoMan was looking at an almost exact copy of himself - except the NaviMarks, which were still completely blank.

"What the hell?"

The three Navis glanced back into the common room. Chaud was on his feet, gaping at Virus in shock. ProtoMan actually wondered why he was so shocked before it occured to him that he and the other two humans probably hadn't been paying attention to the Navis' conversation, and suddenly seeing two of your own Navi would be surprising to just about anyone.

"Have no fear," Virus said with ProtoMan's voice. It was still completely toneless, but it was his voice, and it was a little bit creepy to hear it like that. "It is I, Virus. I am showing ProtoMan my Design Shift."

"Design what?" Chaud repeated blankly.

"Virus is like a shapeshifter," Arin told him. "It can take the form of other Navis by scanning their design data. That's all it uses, don't worry."

"Right," Chaud said, still looking startled. "Okay. Just . . . It was a bit weird to see two ProtoMans. Still is, actually."

"You wish for me to change back?" Virus asked, tilting its head. ProtoMan's long hair moved along the the head tilt and it made ProtoMan wonder if his hair did that, too.

"If you wanna stay like that, I don't mind," Chaud told it, beginning to calm down a little. "But, uh, you know, just warn me next time you decide to turn into ProtoMan."

"I am not ProtoMan, I merely look like him," Virus corrected him.

"Right. Okay."

Chaud sat back down, eyeing the screen - eyeing Virus - with a creeped-out expression. If they were going to be here for several weeks, and Zoet was going to be the operative he was shadowing, he was going to have to get used to Virus's Design Shift move.

But while Chaud was a little freaked out, ProtoMan found it extremely fascinating. That kind of move could be used for all kinds of things, and he asked various questions about Design Shift. One of those questions was whether or not Virus could use normal battle chips when in another Navi's form.

"I can," Virus replied when he asked. "If I were so inclined, and if Zoet gave me one, I would use a sword-type chip or a cannon-type chip in this form. I am only unable to use normal battle chips in my base form. I am also able to use the special chip in whatever form I happen to be in, though it is more powerful when I am in base form."

"Is there any specific reason as to why?" ProtoMan asked. Luckily he didn't need to clarify, as Virus understood the question perfectly.

"We are uncertain, but Arin suspects that using another Navi's design is what allows me to use battle chips," it said. "Perhaps some battle data gets transferred over when I scan a Navi's design data for my own use. After all, a Navi's design is most often connected to however it chooses to battle."

"That's cool."

"It is indeed."

"You're . . . strange, for a Navi," Chaud spoke up, frowning at Virus. It was still in ProtoMan's form. "What's up with your weird appearance, anyway? Why don't you have a face?"

"I am part virus," Virus explained. "But I am still a Navi. My data is corrupted to the point where my appearance is what you saw before I used Design Shift. It is also why my voice has no tone, no matter what form I may be in."

"How-"

"Chaud," ProtoMan said, "it doesn't want to talk about it. Be polite. You're not Lan, remember."

"Excuse me for being curious," Chaud muttered.

"Speaking of curious," Arin spoke up, looking at Chaud, "how long do you have before your friends start to wonder where you are?"

"Hm." Chaud frowned, and glanced at ProtoMan. "What time is it?"

"Two in the afternoon."

Chaud looked surprised. "Huh," he said. "I didn't think it was still that early." He turned back to Arin. "I'd say about four hours, at the most. Five if I can come up with a good excuse other than getting lost."

"Again," ProtoMan added. Jackal snickered and Virus tilted its head in amusement, and Chaud muttered something.

"Well, you'll have enough time for a tour around HQ, at least," Arin mused. "The Haven District is on the other side of the city, though, so it's a long tram ride from here to there, no matter which way you go."

"He could just go through the service station," Zoet suddenly said. She hadn't taken off her headphones nor had she even looked up from her computer screen, and hadn't even given any indication that she'd even been paying attention to the conversation. Yet, somehow, she had.

"That's illegal," Arin replied, shaking her head fondly. "Seriously, Zoet, not everyone has unlimited access to that place. He's got a long tram ride ahead of him and you giving him false hope isn't going to help too much."

"This is not my problem."

"It kind of is, since you're officially responsible for his safety while he's in Nowhere City and with us," Arin reminded her.

Zoet pulled her headphones down around her neck and turned around in her chair, giving her mother a flat look. "Do I look like I care? Do I?" she asked.

"You never look like you care, but everyone knows that's bull - you care a lot more than you let on," Arin said, grinning.

"I do _not_." Zoet looked mildly offended that Arin would even suggest such a thing.

Arin clapped her hands together, bringing an end to that particular discussion. "Well then!" she exclaimed cheerfully. "Suppose you'd better get to showing him around. You may wanna save the best for last, though."

"I was gonna do that anyway."

Chaud looked at both of them. "Best?" he wondered.

Arin and Zoet glanced at each other, Arin with a smirk and Zoet with a raised eyebrow. They turned back to Chaud and shook their heads in unison.

"What do they mean?" ProtoMan asked Virus and Jackal.

"Oh, no, there won't be any easy answers out of us, I'm afraid," Jackal replied, with a smirk that mirrored his NetOp's almost perfectly despite the dog-like muzzle.

"You will find out on your own," Virus added, nodding. "It is quite a sight, allow me to assure you."

"Uh . . . okay."

 **OOOOOO**

Had a bit of a problem with this, it refused to save for some reason . . . turned out my laptop decided it was at full memory capacity or some bullshit and wouldn't let me save.

Goddammit. Now I gotta go around and clean up some shit so I can actually write this weirdness . . . ugh.

The good news is, hopefully the rest of this will save.

In other news, Chaud gets a lot of screentime (or, well, chaptertime), and I even managed to put in ProtoMan's POV! Though it was different to how I'd originally wanted to write it . . . Oh well, I can always write what I wanted to write at some later point, amiright?

Anyway, next chapter we'll get shown around the Underground NetBattler's HQ, and then if there's enough room I'll switch to Lan briefly. Then the next two after that will be dedicated entirely to Zoet showing Chaud around the entire city!

By the way, about Zoet's name - it's actually a name I did indeed make up entirely on my own, but out of curiosity I typed in 'Zoet translation' on Google, and it came up with the Dutch word for sweet. But I'd already decided how it was pronounced in my head (poet with a Z, like Arin said), and I didn't care enough to change it because I did come up with this name. So I added in that little scene with Zoet getting offended that she's named Sweet in Dutch.

Read and review!


	6. Chapter 6 - The VR System

I couldn't actually put this down in the previous chapter's AN, because I was too worried about the file size, but three out of four of the Underground NetBattler's leaders are actually references to different people - one of them not even a real person, actually.

You guys already know about Roahm - and one of his Navis, Mythril - who's a reference/expy of RoahmMythril the YouTuber. The next is Kris Landy, whose last name is a reference to my favourite book series author, Derek Landy, who wrote the _Skulduggery Pleasant_ series. The last is Gunter Red, whose first name is a reference to Gunther Schultz from the _Attack on Titan_ franchise. Gunter's missing the H because I didn't remember how Gunther's name was spelt at the time, but whatever, I'm too lazy to go and change it now.

So yeah, those're the references in the leaders. Arin Zaliki is the only one who's not a reference to anyone else, real or otherwise, and Zoet is the same as her mother. Virus, on the other hand, is a reference to some god-like beings from the _Skulduggery Pleasant_ series, known as the Faceless Ones. Unlike the Faceless Ones, Virus isn't an insane god hell-bent on enslaving humanity, which is a good thing considering how powerful it is.

Speaking of Virus, I've actually got its profile/appearance if anyone's interested. Here!

/01ndi1falgd8

There's also one for its sister.

/0784ncmxtbv

I don't wanna try describing Flight too much in the story, because otherwise I'd take up at least two massive paragraphs - her design's kinda complicated, as you can see from the profile above.

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

I also actually have a map that I drew of Nowhere City, which I won't show you yet until Zoet starts showing Chaud around the city itself. For now, though, you can all finally meet Flight, at least at some point in this chapter anyway.

Speaking of appearances, I've also written down Zoet and Arin's appearances in the profiles I've made for them - here you go!

 **Zoet - short messy pixie cut (brown), dark brown eyes, looks bored/tired most of the time, likes wearing sleeveless dark-coloured hoodies and baggy shorts, wears wireless black headphones around neck (discs have gold rings with gold Z in the middle of ring), is left-handed**

 **Arin - long bushy hair (dark brown), dark blue eyes, most often seen with a cheerful grin, wears a dark brown bomber jacket (unzipped), dark red shirt (has a gold ring containing a Z in the middle of the chest) underneath, black trousers, brown aviator hat with goggles**

I'm trying to restrain myself from describing OCs and whatever else in extreme detail, but these two characters I needed to tell you what they look like (or at least how I imagine them in a vague sense) so you guys can see it too. As you can see, both Arin and Zoet have the Zaliki family NetNavi symbol on their person - Zoet has hers on her headphones, while Arin has hers on the chest of her shirt. It's literally just a golden Z inside a golden disc with a black background.

Also if I can manage it, I'll sneak in a POV for Lan at the end here. We've been away from him for a while, so it's only fair, but we'll be right back to Chaud for the next couple of chapters regardless of whether or not I can fit in Lan's POV at the end here.

In other news, I've finished watching most of the anime - decided to watch the subbed series because I really wanted to watch _Stream_ , _Beast_ , and _Beast+_ , but I could only find the first nine episodes of _Beast+_ subbed, so unfortunately I can't go any further with that. I've also finally found somewhere to read the goddamn manga, so maybe I can drag in some stuff from that when I'm done.

I have yet to finish watching the _Let's Plays_ of the games, but I have decided to set this almost exclusively in the gameverse, barring a few anime-exclusive characters such as Tory.

Anyway.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Chaud had been right - the layout of the HQ was extremely complicated, and it was completely on purpose. According to Virus, the layout was so complex that not even most of the Underground NetBattlers themselves actually knew the place well enough to get around without downloading a map first, and Zoet wasn't one of those people who had the place memorised, so they used a map to get around.

There were several different levels to the HQ. The first was the 'hub' level so to speak, where most of the common rooms were located, along with the mess hall and the first level entrance to the training room.

The next few levels were randomly spaced, each with their own unique layouts, rooms, and also their own entrances to the training room, which was basically a giant room in the middle of HQ that spanned every single level except for the very top.

The very top level being, of course, the command centre where Kris and her team, also the other leaders, ran the entire organisation from. They also sometimes made announcements from there when it was necessary, but the command centre's monitors were set up almost exclusively for mission dispatch and emergency lines only. They also doubled as windows overlooking the Historical District so the people in the command centre could keep an eye on the city overall rather than being forced to keep tabs on it only via strategically-placed security cameras.

Speaking of windows, Chaud actually noticed something strange about the ones he and Zoet passed while they were going through some of the hallways that were at the front of the HQ.

"When I looked into these windows from the outside," he said, pausing to look out of a particularly long and tall window that almost spanned the entire hallway wall, "they were really small, and didn't show anything other than empty rooms. Yet I'm looking out of these windows and they're completely different. How?"

Zoet also paused, and looked at him. "Magic," she said with a straight face.

Chaud waited.

" . . . It's cloaking technology, idiot," Zoet eventually told him. "What, you guys don't have this in Electopia?"

"We operate differently to you guys," ProtoMan spoke up. "We don't work from a secret base, for one thing, so we have no need for cloaking technology. We also don't really need to use maps to get around our HQ, either."

Zoet scoffed. "Yeah, no kidding. Bet your NetOp can't even read the damn signs around here, can he?"

"Actually," Chaud admitted, "I can't. Is that gonna be a problem while I'm here, or . . .?"

"So long as you keep someone around who _can_ read them, you're fine," Zoet said with a careless shrug. "Good thing your PET's running the translation program, right? Otherwise _we_ wouldn't be able to understand each other at all."

Chaud blinked, surprised. "Wait, what?" He took out his PET and looked at ProtoMan. "When did you start running the translation program?"

"I said the PET was running it, not your Navi," Zoet snapped. "Get your facts straight. And it's been running from the moment you entered the city, it's kind of automatic so tourists and whatever don't get confused when they come in."

Chaud nodded in understanding, but then he remembered something. "The guys at the marina - the docks," he said. "I could understand them perfectly."

"So?"

"Well, weren't they speaking Savaron?" he asked, frowning. "How could I understand what they were saying if I wasn't in the city yet?"

"The marina's part of the city," Zoet grunted. "The translation program in everyone's PET automatically boots up the moment you set foot on the marina docks and spans the entire city's network. You can thank my mom for that. And since it's automatic, your Navi doesn't need to run it themself, and if there's any bugs I'm sure you'll probably notice. So to you, I'm speaking Electopian, but to me, you're speaking Savaron. Turn off the translation program."

That was a bit abrupt.

"Why?" he asked Zoet.

"Just do it. Bet you've never heard Savaron before, have you? Well, here's your chance, and it's better to find out what it sounds like now rather than later when you find out, oh, wow, the program's gone bust and suddenly I can't understand a word anyone's saying because no one else speaks my language."

Zoet obviously had the same kind of disaster-focused imagination that ProtoMan had, but she did have a point. He instructed ProtoMan to turn off the translation program, finding that it had indeed been running since he set foot on the docks, and when it was turned off he glanced back at Zoet.

"Llew? Nac uoy dnatsrednu em won?" Zoet asked him.

"That . . . what?" Chaud blankly asked. "That just sounds like complete gibberish."

"Most foreign languages do, until you learn how to speak them," ProtoMan pointed out. "She said 'well? Can you understand me now?'"

"Obviously not."

"Taht srewsna taht," Zoet said, nodding. "Nrut eht margorp kcab no."

Chaud looked at ProtoMan for a translation.

"She wants you to turn the program back on," ProtoMan said. "Shall I?" Chaud nodded, and ProtoMan turned the translation program on.

"Your language sounds like gibberish," was the first thing Zoet said to him.

"So does yours," he retorted.

"It's all about perspective, brat, now shut up and follow me - I'm gonna show you the mess hall."

Chaud sighed, and followed her. "Can you stop calling me 'brat'? We are the _same age_ ," he protested.

"The hell we are. I'm older than you."

"We're the same height-"

"I'm fifteen, you dumb brat."

"You're short."

"And you're dumb."

"You are both of questionable intelligence, now please proceed to the mess hall," Virus interrupted.

 **oooo**

The last thing that Zoet showed him was the training room. He'd thought that the command centre would be the last thing, given how it had an entire floor all to itself, but apparently the training room was a lot more impressive than the central hub of the Underground NetBattlers' mission operations.

"Can't you tell me anything about the training room?" Chaud wondered, as they rode the lift down to the first level. The higher floors that went into the training room basically just came out onto various protected balconies, so to get into the actual room itself, they needed to go all the way down to the first level.

"No," Zoet replied bluntly.

"Not even a little hint as to what you're about to show me? For all I know, it could be that you're leading me to my doom."

"Who's got the disaster-focused imagination now?" Zoet said. The lift stopped and the doors opened, and she led him through various hallways, occasionally checking the map on her PET.

Chaud was still fairly certain she was plotting his murder.

They passed a few people in the hallways as they walked, but Zoet just bluntly ignored them all, and no one seemed to take it personally even when they said hello to her. They gave Chaud some curious looks as well, and he just knew they would be wondering what a new guy like him was doing with Zoet, who appeared to be well-known for hating new people with a passion.

After a few minutes of walking, Zoet finally stopped in front of some rather impressive double doors. They were at the end of the largest hallway Chaud had been in so far, and there were screens and holographic boards all the way down the walls, showing different things such as lists and various numbers - none of which he could read, of course, although it seemed that while Savaro's letter system was a complete mystery, their number system was similar enough to Electopia's that he was able to read it.

Great. The one thing he could read in this country, and it was numbers. That was _extremely_ helpful.

Zoet, with a glance at Chaud, punched in a code on the panel next to the door. Was it his imagination, or had she just smirked at him?

The double doors opened, and Zoet led him into one of the biggest rooms he'd ever been in in his entire life. The room's walls were a strange hybrid texture of rocks and metal, and despite the size it was well-lit, even though he couldn't see any visible light source. The floor was also a mix of rock and metal, although it felt softer than it looked. The ceiling was so high up that it would have been in shadows had it not been for the large dome in the very centre, which occasionally pulsed with a strange but soft blue light.

He could see various balconies on the walls, where observers could watch from the different floors. The balconies were encased in what seemed to be glass, but given the advanced technology that the Underground NetBattlers had access to, Chaud had no doubts it was sturdy and extremely difficult to break.

"Woah," Chaud said, as the double doors slid shut behind them with barely a sound. "This is massive."

"Really?" Zoet said dryly. "The only thing you can comment on is the size of the room?"

"What else am I supposed to comment on? The weird patchwork texture you've got on the walls?" Chaud demanded, frowning at her over his shoulder. "That sphere on the ceiling?"

"How about me?"

He turned around, and stared.

There was a person standing in front of him, a few feet away. Under normal circumstances this wouldn't have been too strange, except for the fact that she hadn't been there a few moments ago, and she had wings. Actual wings, attached to her arms like bat wings, except instead of claws she had golden-gloved hands. But she did, however, have clawed feet that looked more like they belonged on a bird than a person. Her eyes seemed to be some weird orange-red colour, with no visible pupils or even irises, and she had orange skin and black feather-like hair.

For a moment he was completely confused. Was this some sort of battle suit that allowed the Underground NetBattlers to fly or something?

But then he spotted the NaviMark on her chest.

Standing in front of him, in the real world and not the cyberworld, was an actual NetNavi.

" . . . And now he says nothing," the Navi said, glancing at Zoet. "Is he in shock?"

"No, he's extremely thick," Zoet muttered.

Zoet's comment pulled him out of his shock for a moment. "Excuse me?" he snapped, whipping his head around to glare at her.

"You're excused," Zoet flatly replied. "Annoying brat, meet my other Navi and Virus's twin sister, Flight."

"Hi," Chaud said almost automatically, turning around again to look at the Navi - to look at Flight. "How're you in-"

"-the real world?" Flight guessed his question, and when he nodded, she grinned. The grin was almost the same crazy one as Arin's. "Now you're asking the good questions, kiddo. This is the VR system's handiwork."

"Tell me you've at least heard the name before," Zoet said, coming around to stand beside her second Navi.

It only just occured to Chaud then that Zoet was most likely part of the DoubleNavi program that Roahm was the head of. It hadn't exactly registered before, because he'd only seen her with Virus, but now seeing the second Navi - Flight, with the same golden Z NaviMark that Jackal had - he realised she was one of the DoubleNavi special operatives.

Huh. Maybe this was why Arin had chosen her bad-tempered daughter, although why she couldn't have chosen someone more hospitable was beyond him.

She'd probably thought it would be funny.

"The leaders mentioned it when I met them," Chaud ventured, after a moments' pause.

"That's something at least," Zoet muttered.

"VR stands for Virtual Reality," Flight explained, her eyes shining. Clearly she was enjoying explaining this. "You see that giant sphere up on the ceiling? Inside that is the VR system's Core, which powers the entire system and keeps it running as long as the training room's in use. I've been messing around with the different levels and arenas for the past couple of hours, waiting for you guys to show up."

"So you can show off, no doubt," Zoet said, giving her Navi a mildly exasperated look. Flight just sniggered, and Zoet turned her attention to Chaud. "Jack in ProtoMan."

Was she always going to give him abrupt orders like this? What was she trying to do, surprise him into obeying her or something?

Or maybe she was just extremely rude. That seemed more likely.

"Uh, why?" he asked warily. "And how? There's no jack-in ports anywhere, as far as I can tell."

"You're an idiot," Zoet informed him.

"Stop calling me- HEY!"

Zoet had just stalked forward and snatched his PET from him, and when Chaud went to grab it back, she just simply ignored him and held it out as if to jack it into something - but what? There were no jack-in ports, the entire room was just wall, floor, and ceiling, what the heck was she-

"Jack in, ProtoMan," Zoet announced, pressing the jack-in button on the PET.

Chaud almost expected nothing to happen, but then his mouth fell open in shock as ProtoMan was somehow jacked in to thin air. The red wireless beam that usually signified jacking in appeared to hit an invisble barrier a few feet away, and ProtoMan's shape formed out of it. A moment later, the beam solidified, and then vanished - and ProtoMan was standing in front of them, in the real world.

"Oop, the kid's in shock again," Flight commented, glancing at Chaud.

Zoet tossed the PET back to him, and he just barely caught it. He was too busy staring at ProtoMan.

ProtoMan himself was also in shock, staring down at himself and then at Chaud. Slowly, carefully, he reached out, but just before he came into contact with his NetOp he drew his hand back and glanced at Flight and Zoet uncertainly.

"The VR system creates solid holograms," Flight told him. "You can touch him." She didn't demonstrate by touching Zoet, which Chaud found slightly odd, but her words seemed to give ProtoMan some confidence.

He reached out once again, and almost shied away from touching Chaud, but Chaud decided to meet him halfway and held out his own hand to meet ProtoMan's. Their palms touched and Chaud couldn't stop a joyful grin spreading across his face. ProtoMan mirrored his grin and then, not a moment later, the two of them were hugging.

The first thing Chaud registered was that ProtoMan was taller than him. The second thing was that he felt like an actual living human being. He was actually _warm_ and _solid_.

"That's how most NetOps and their Navis react the first time they see the VR system in action," Flight said, clapping her hands together in delight. "Everyone likes hugging!"

"I don't like hugging," Zoet corrected her Navi.

"Everyone apart from Zoet likes hugging," Flight said without missing a beat.

"Virus, jack in."

Another red beam of light distracted Chaud from hugging ProtoMan, and he pulled away just in time to see Virus appear a few feet away. It had gone back to its base form a while ago, but it had ProtoMan's design data stored away inside its memory forever now, so it could just use Design Shift and become - er, look like - ProtoMan whenever it wanted to.

Not that Chaud minded. He was a bit focused on ProtoMan being in the real world and actually _solid_ , at that.

He couldn't help but give ProtoMan's arm a quick poke, just in case this was some elaborate prank, and when his Navi grunted in surprise and jerked away, Chaud grinned again.

"Good god," Zoet said, "you look demented."

"I'm just really excited," Chaud blurted out, unable to keep the giddy joy out of his voice.

"Me too, but, uh, why'd you poke me?" ProtoMan asked him, rubbing his arm where Chaud had poked him. "I mean, it was more surprising than painful, but . . . why?"

"I had to make sure," Chaud replied. "Sorry. It was . . . I'm really excited."

"We noticed," Zoet deadpanned. "Moving on. You wanna find out what else the VR system can do, or do you wanna make out with ProtoMan some more?"

"It can _more_ than this?" Chaud demanded, ignoring the latter comment. The idea that this VR system - this wonderful, amazing VR system - could do even more than allow Navis to materialise with solid form in the real world seemed beyond the impossible, but at this point Chaud was beginning to think that the Underground NetBattlers could do anything.

They made ProtoMan real, for the love of god. If they could do that, then they really _could_ do anything.

"Hell yeah it can," Zoet replied, crossing her arms and giving him a triumphant smirk. "Virus, wanna do the honours?"

"Very well," Virus said. Its voice had gone back to the one Chaud had first heard, which was somewhat of a relief at least, because even though he knew it wasn't his Navi, hearing ProtoMan's voice so toneless was a little more than freaky.

Virus turned to face one of the walls, and held out a four-fingered/clawed hand. For a moment nothing happened, and then all of the metal panels on the wall flipped over, revealing glowing panels the same colour as the VR system's Core above them.

"Level or arena?" a warm but robotic voice asked. There was no indication of where the voice came from, but for some reason Chaud imagined that it was coming from the Core.

Virus turned its faceless head towards Zoet questioningly.

"Level," Zoet decided. "It's more impressive. We can play with the arenas later. Go for the icefield level, too."

Virus nodded. "Icefield level," it said to the room.

Chaud had to shield his eyes against the sudden bright flash that came out of the glowing panels in the walls, and when he opened his eyes a moment later, he was once again shocked into silence.

Instead of the weirdly-textured training room, he, Zoet, and the three Navis were now standing in what appeared to be a giant frozen wasteland. The occasional hill of ice rose up from the ground, and he could see uneven patches of white where the icy floor gave way to large piles of snow. The ceiling and the walls had vanished entirely, leaving them in the endless icy-blue wasteland.

"Impressed yet?" Zoet asked him, although from her tone she obviously knew what his answer was going to be.

"Yes," he said firmly, still staring around the icefield - for that was literally what this place was. An actual field of ice.

"Alright," Zoet went on, "we've got like an hour or two left. Let's mess around in here for a while. You up for an extremely violent and high-powered snowball fight?"

"Is that what this particular level is used for?" Chaud wondered.

"It's what _we_ use it for," Flight replied.

She gripped her wings with her hands, and a moment later her hands were no longer there, having morphed into her wings with barely a trace except for the golden alulas left behind. She took off into the wide-open air, accidentally blasting snow in all directions, and ProtoMan quickly shielded Chaud from getting hit by it.

"Free-for-all!" Flight announced, zooming off in a random direction.

Zoet dashed off as well, and Virus tilted its head at Chaud and ProtoMan before wandering off calmly in another direction.

Chaud and ProtoMan exchanged a glance.

"Gang up on them?" Chaud suggested.

"It'll be three-on-two if _they_ decide to gang up on _us_ ," ProtoMan pointed out, "but sure, why not? I've never been in a snowball fight before. This'll be fun."

He jerked forward and almost lost his balance as a snowball came flying out of nowhere and hit the back of his head.

"Like hell it will," Zoet said from a few metres away, readying a second snowball.

 **oooo**

"IceMan says the net here is really awesome," Tory said excitedly.

Lan, distracted, hardly even reacted until Tory called his name a couple of times. He glanced up and blinked.

"Uh, what?" he asked.

"The net," Tory repeated. "IceMan says it's really awesome. I had a look myself, he's right, this has to be the greatest net I've ever seen in my entire life! There's different Squares for every single district, and we've only been to the Haven Square so far, but I'm gonna bet all of them are just as cool as this one. If not more so!"

"I'll check it out later," Lan promised. He wasn't about to do anything like exploring the city - in the real world or the cyberworld - without MegaMan, so technically by saying he'd 'check it out later', he wasn't lying.

Tory gave him a worried look and walked away, and Lan couldn't help feeling slightly guilty.

"We're gonna go with Dad tomorrow," Lan said to MegaMan, even though MegaMan hadn't replied to him for days. "I mean, I dunno what I'm gonna do there, and I'm not a scientist like Dad is, but I just wanna be there just in case . . . I don't know. But I'm still going. And I'm keeping my promise - I'm not exploring this place until you're better, okay?"

He knew by 'better' he didn't mean getting MegaMan's spine fixed.

"Mom, Dex, and Yai got back a while ago," Lan went on. "Dex got me two toffee apples - I think he's trying to make up for . . . you know. I think there's even an internet version of the festival going on in the Gate Square, cus he said GutsMan got some cool stuff from the stalls as well. Chaud hasn't come back yet, but then again this is Chaud we're talking about. He's probably off somewhere acting all cool and beating everyone in NetBattles or something, you know? That guy never has any downtime at all, I swear. Hey, maybe they've got a cool NetBattling place somewhere in the city, like the DenDome?"

MegaMan said nothing.

"We don't need to battle," Lan quickly said. "I just wanna see what these Nowhere people can do is all! I mean, they seem pretty wacky, but that just means they're really good, right? The crazier someone acts, the better they are at NetBattling, right?"

Again, no response.

Lan sighed - he'd tried this so many times, he'd tried everything he could think of, but even though he'd promised Mom he'd help MegaMan out as much as he could . . . it was starting to seem like an impossible task.

Maybe . . . maybe MegaMan didn't _want_ to be helped.

For a moment he almost gave in to the despair that threatened to drown him, but then Lan shook his head angrily and forced himself to remain optimistic. MegaMan would recover, both physically and mentally, and Lan would be there every step of the way. He _had_ to help MegaMan get better, no matter what.

"Lan," Dad said, stepping into the room. "Everyone's going to the dining hall for some dinner. You hungry?"

"Er, yeah," Lan quickly replied. He put his PET away and followed his dad downstairs. They were on the top floor of the hotel, which had a name that he couldn't pronounce, so they used the lift instead of the stairs. It was a lot faster.

The lift opened and Lan and his dad stepped out into the lobby. This place may have had a name that he couldn't pronounce, but damn was the hotel fancy. Trust Yai to demand the best place available, but at least she'd offered to pay for the rooms and everything else.

"Dr. Hikari!" Chaud called from the lobby's front entrance.

"Oh, I didn't realise you'd come back yet," Dad greeted Chaud warmly, as he met them in the middle of the room. "Did you have fun exploring?"

There was a strange, giddy light in Chaud's eyes that Lan had never seen before, but he didn't act any differently to how he usually did. "I spent most of my time in the Historical District," Chaud replied. "They have a lot of good stuff over there."

Dad nodded, and the two of them exchanged a look. Lan frowned. Was there something going on that he didn't know about, and Chaud and his dad did?

But, whatever. That wasn't any of his business. Normally, yeah, he'd be demanding an answer or snooping around trying to figure it out for himself, but at the moment he didn't really care. If Chaud was doing secret stuff, then Chaud could do secret stuff. His priority was MegaMan.

"Where're you going tomorrow?" Lan asked, mainly out of sheer curiosity, as Dad took them through the lobby and into the dining hall. It was just as fancy and even bigger than the lobby, and there were a lot of people inside, eating fancy-looking food. Lan hoped they had curry instead of whatever that weird stuff was.

"I'll explore the rest of the city, I think," Chaud decided after a brief pause. "I got sidetracked in the Historical District, but there's seven other districts that are no doubt just as interesting."

"By 'sidetracked', he means he got hopelessly lost again, and he wouldn't let me help, so we ended up wandering around the district for ages before he finally found the tram station," ProtoMan put in.

"ProtoMan," Chaud hissed.

"You told me to," ProtoMan pointed out.

 _Told him to what?_ Lan wondered, as Chaud took out his PET and glared at the red Navi.

"At no point did I give you permission to say _that_ ," Chaud snapped. "Next time, think of something better."

"But this is more amusing," ProtoMan protested.

" _Not to me_."

And now Lan was completely confused, but then his dad called them over from a nearby table - the others were already seated and ready to order, and they were getting a little impatient. As he went over, his mind almost instantly focusing on the thought of food, he forgot all about Chaud and ProtoMan's weird conversation.

 **OOOOOO**

I wasn't really sure how to write Lan's POV - I've kinda forgotten, since we've spent so much time with Chaud all of a sudden, but I just wanted to dump in that little scene at the end there, mainly to show you guys how Chaud's keeping his visit to the Underground NetBattlers a secret.

But yeah, moving on, we've got the VR system!

This isn't just something I threw in there for the hell of it. The VR system will actually become plot-relevant at some point, but for now it's only being used as the training room's main shtick. And, also, with the secret extrance from a couple of chapters ago. Everyone remember the holographic wall? Yup, that's part of the VR system's abilities, just a less impressive way of using it.

Oh, and that little hug between ProtoMan and Chaud was a little unplanned, but I wanted an excuse to make them hug, so here we go. Everyone apart from Zoet likes hugs!

And we also get to meet Flight, Virus's twin sister! Once again I'll dump in both of their profiles here so you guys know what they look like.

/01ndi1falgd8

That's Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

And that's Flight.

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

I did also want to add in a scene where we find out what Flight's basic move is - if you've read her profile, you probably already know, but I want to describe it in-story because it's a damn good move. I won't be showing Smile until I need to, since it's . . . not exactly powerful, but it's designed to be extremely terrifying and uses paralysing fear as its weapon.

Instead, I threw in the icefield bit along with the high-powered snowball fight, just for the hell of it, and then had Lan mention that Chaud was probably acting like his usual badass cool-guy self. Which, in fact, he wasn't, because he was acting like a five-year-old and was getting his ass beaten in the world's weirdest snowball fight.

Yes, Zoet and her Navis are extremely immature. Chaud and ProtoMan, by extension, will also occasionally act immature if only because it amuses me.

Moving on, we'll be exploring the entire city over the next couple of chapters, and I'll show you guys that map I made during the end-of-chapter AN for the next chapter.

Read and review!


	7. Chapter 7 - Tour of the City, Part 1

For the sake of my own sanity, and also for anyone who missed them in the last chapter, I'll keep putting Virus and Flight's profiles in the ANs. At least for the next several chapters.

/01ndi1falgd8

That's Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

And there's Flight.

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

Like I said before, I'll be putting in the map I drew during the end-of-chapter AN, mainly because we haven't actually heard what the other districts are even called yet. So it'll be kind of spoilers if I put the map in here, and I'm not particularly fond of spoilers. Unless there's a good reason.

Moving on, let's go straight into this, because there's quite a lot planned and I don't want to end up with the same problem I had with chapter five.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Chaud woke up to a dark room and someone poking his shoulder.

He opened his eyes a little, still half-asleep. There was someone kneeling on his bed and hovering over him.

Suddenly fully-awake, Chaud opened his mouth to shout, but the person quickly slapped their hand over his mouth and shushed him harshly.

"Do. Not," Zoet whispered.

"Mmf," Chaud said. Zoet removed her hand, but the look she gave him said _talk quietly or die_ , so he kept his voice low. "What are you doing in here?" he hissed.

"Waking you up, duh."

"It's-" He quickly checked the time. "-four in the morning. Even I don't get up this early. What are you doing here?"

"I'm supposed to show you around the city today, dumbass brat. There's eight districts, nine including the marina, and we can only go through half of them in a single day, but even that'll take a long time, so we gotta get up bright and early," Zoet explained. She leaned back but stayed kneeling on his bed, and Chaud forced himself to sit up.

"How did you even get in here?" Chaud demanded.

In response, Zoet moved to the side and gestured to the open window. It hadn't been open when he'd gone to sleep last night.

Chaud looked at it blankly, and then turned his gaze to Zoet. "We're on the top floor of the biggest and tallest hotel in the entire district," he said, "and that window was locked. From the inside."

"What's your point?"

Chaud stared at her in stunned silence.

After a moment, Zoet realised he wasn't going to respond, so she slid off his bed and grabbed his PET off the bedside table. He didn't even register that she'd taken it until she was standing at the window, poised to jump out.

"Meet you outside the lobby in twenty minutes," Zoet told him.

He jumped out of bed and she jumped out of the window, and all Chaud could do was stare blankly at the place where she'd been.

" . . . What have I gotten myself into?" he asked himself.

 **oooo**

He left a hastily-scrawled note on the front of his hotel room door and hoped that the others wouldn't get angry at him for this. They'd probably think he was being a prick, but in this case he didn't have much choice. Zoet had seen to that. Actually, that was probably why she'd taken his PET, just to make sure he didn't go back to sleep.

Chaud nodded to the receptionist in the lobby as he walked by, trying to appear as though this was completely normal for him, and found Zoet waiting for him outside.

"You took your sweet time," Zoet commented, turning to face him. "I downloaded a few maps into your PET so we don't get lost. ProtoMan's actually better at map-reading than my guys are, so we'll follow his directions if we get lost."

" _You're_ supposed to be _my_ guide," Chaud pointed out, "not the other way around."

Zoet shrugged and handed his PET over. "Just because I live in this city doesn't mean I know every district off-by-heart. In fact, I've only ever been to this district a few times, and I'm not particularly fond of it."

"Why not?"

Zoet gestured above their heads, to the empty space where, in every other district, various walkways would have been. "There's no walkways," she explained, sounding mildly offended. "It's . . . it's just weird, is what it is. This place feels really empty. Also, the Haven District is mainly for tourists and guests and idiots."

It wasn't too difficult to guess which one Zoet classified him as.

"So, we're going on a whirlwind tour of Haven, and then we're going to the Jungle District," Zoet told him, spinning on her heel and walking off. Chaud rushed after her, because even if she had downloaded a map to his PET, he still felt like he'd get lost if he didn't follow her.

"Jungle District?" he repeated. "There's an actual jungle down here?"

"Kind of," Zoet hedged, waving her hand around in a so-so gesture. "A lot of the plants are real, but we do have the occasional fake and mechanical plants, because otherwise the entire district would just fall apart. Also some of the plants we want to have can't actualy survive underground."

"Why are there-"

"Save the questions for when we're in the relevant district, brat."

He rolled his eyes but complied, if only because it did make more sense to wait until he was in the Jungle District to ask about it.

. . . An actual jungle. Wow. Nowhere City was full of surprises, and each one was cooler than the last.

As she said, Zoet did indeed take him on a whirlwind tour of the Haven District. She said it was the third-smallest district in the city, if you included the marina (Virus said that most people did), and explained that Haven was originally built to be something else entirely. The original purpose of the district had been lost to history, but now the district was where tourists and other such people stayed when they were in the city, with the highest number of hotels, inns, eateries, and basically anything you'd expect to find in a place that catered for tourists.

There was also Haven's internet Square, which was also mainly for tourist Navis. It seemed that Virus and Flight shared Zoet's opinion when it came to Haven Square, and Chaud had to say he couldn't honestly blame the three of them. In comparison to the other districts he'd seen so far, Haven - both the real version and the cyber version - seemed kind of forced.

It was kind of okay, he guessed, but that was probably just because he was a guest in the city. He was looking at it from an outsider's point of view, while Zoet and her Navis were looking at it from the point of view of a native of the city.

"I won't bother showing you the inside of the Sun Pyramid," Zoet said, when they found themselves in the square around it. There was a square around every Sun Pyramid, what was basically the central hub of every single district. "Not for this district at least."

"Why not?" Chaud asked curiously, and then he paused. "Wait, you can go inside the pyramids?"

"Well, duh," Zoet said, looking at him like he was an idiot. "You think the Sun Pyramids are so massive for the hell of it? Sure, the mechanism for the lights is pretty big, but it still wouldn't take up that much space."

"The Sun Pyramids are used for different things, depending on the district," Flight spoke up from Zoet's PET. "In the Haven District, it's basically used for the benefit of tourists. It's got the largest gift shop in the whole district, and has several useful information booths."

"It also houses the foreign exchange bureau," Virus added, "and other services to aid tourists and guests during their stay. To the citizens of Nowhere, it is known as the tourist tomb."

"That's a little morbid," Chaud commented.

"Tomb is basically the same as pyramid," Zoet huffed, rolling her eyes. "Moron."

"Stop-"

"No."

There wasn't much else that they could do in Haven, and after getting lost a grand total of eleven times (Chaud was actually not to blame for once, this was entirely on Zoet, but she didn't seem to bothered by this), they arrived at the Haven District tram station.

The Jungle District was twenty minutes away via tram, but they had to wait a few minutes for the tram itself to arrive. It seemed that trams in Nowhere City were essentially the same as buses in DenTech City. At least it was a smooth ride, and at this time of the morning, there was hardly anyone around, so the tram was almost empty except for Chaud, Zoet, and a man who kept muttering to himself about structures.

 **oooo**

"Oh my god," Chaud said when he stepped out of the Jungle Station and into the Jungle District.

Chaud was still trying to withhold his opinion until he'd seen all of the districts, but this one was by far the most impressive one he'd seen. It seemed almost like a hidden village deep in a forest or an actual jungle, or maybe something from a game. Like the Science District, the streets were randomly spread out, but instead of a maze it was almost like an actual jungle town. Or, well, city.

Most of the buildings in this district were covered in what looked like vines and leaves and various other types of foliage. The streets looked like pathways from a forest, and Chaud would have assumed that this was indeed a forest had the streets not been wide enough for vehicles to go on. The dirt track was the road, while the pavement was springy and soft grass. Vines and leaves and different plants grew everywhere in this district.

And then, the most impressive part of the district, at least in his opinion.

The walkways weren't just metal paths suspended by mechanical pillars. Instead, they looked exactly like giant branches, and the pillars themselves were modelled after giant trees. Unlike the other districts' walkways, these ones didn't meet up on four-way platforms, instead they crisscrossed in every single direction - some paths crossed in mid-air while others joined up with the giant trees to make the platforms around the trunks. Some of the branches were actually big enough to accommodate what looked like log houses.

"Impressed, huh?" Zoet asked smugly, standing next to him.

"Oh my god," Chaud said again.

"Yep. I may be a little biased, but this is the best district in the entire city," Zoet said, glancing around.

"Why are you biased?" ProtoMan asked, because Chaud was too busy gaping at the district to ask himself.

"I live here. In this district, specifically."

Chaud finally dragged himself out of his shock and turned to Zoet. "You live here?" he repeated. "Seriously? That is _awesome_."

"I get the feeling you don't normally act so giddy," Zoet said dryly.

"He gets like this when he's in the middle of a sugar rush, but he hasn't had any coffee lately, so he's probably just extremely excited," ProtoMan said.

"Let me and my giddiness be," Chaud protested.

They spent far more time in the Jungle District than they did in the Haven District. Chaud suspected this was because Zoet just wanted to show off her home district, but he didn't mind because he was enjoying himself a lot.

Zoet took him around the streets first, showing him what they looked like. The forest path theme was everywhere, but each street was unique, even if only by a little bit. Heck, everything in this district was unique, right down to even the buildings themselves. That was because of all the plants, he suspected. They made _everything_ different.

"The mechanical plants are the trees," Zoet explained, when she decided to take him up to the walkways. "There's other mechanical plants too, but these are the main ones since they're our version of the usual walkways. The trunks have lifts inside them, and we don't really need support pillars to keep the walkways up since the branches are pretty sturdy on their own. You can probably tell by the way some people live on them."

"Don't forget the Sun Pyramid!" Flight called.

"I'm getting to it, shut up you crazy-haired maniac," Zoet snapped.

"Oi, oi, you like the hair, Your Rudeness!"

"I do like your hair, yeah, but at this point I seriously have to wonder _why_ -"

"You take that back or I'll kick your ass six ways to Sunday the next time we're in the training room!"

"Good luck with that, bird-brain."

Virus just sighed at their bickering, and didn't bother to intervene.

" . . . These guys are professionals?" Chaud wondered quietly.

ProtoMan just shrugged. "Well, it's not like anyone ever said that professionals have to _act_ like professionals," he pointed out mildly. "Take Lan and MegaMan, for example. Or even you."

"And what exactly does that mean?" Chaud asked suspiciously.

"You have a _very_ bad habit of getting lost constantly. Also, you're a sugar addict."

Chaud was about to argue, but then he paused and shrugged, conceeding the point. "Fair enough," he admitted.

They waited for Zoet and Flight to stop arguing, and eventually made their way to the centre of the Jungle District, the Sun Pyramid. Like all the other pyramids he'd seen, it was big, it was black, and the light at the tip was a soft red that, even as he watched, seemed to be turning yellow.

Late dawn, then. Chaud wondered when the sun would rise properly.

"You know how the times for these things work?" Zoet asked, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Yeah," Chaud replied. "Yellow for day, blue for night, red for dawn, and purple for dusk."

Zoet looked mildly surprised that he actually got that right, and Chaud felt a bit of childish glee at finally catching her off-guard, however briefly.

She took him inside the pyramid, and now it was his turn, once again, to be surprised. The interior of the Sun Pyramid was a lot bigger than he'd imagined, and while he didn't know what the Haven District's looked like (Zoet had told him he could go and look at it himself, since she didn't exactly enjoy going in there), he imagined it was similar to this.

It was a giant room with a high but flat ceiling. He hadn't known what he'd been expecting for the ceiling, maybe something triangular-shaped since it was inside a pyramid, but there was probably a second floor above the room that housed the mechanism for the Sun Pyramid's light. All around the room there were different things, everything from shops to food courts. People walked in between stalls and chatted to each other and bought things, and Chaud was reminded of the Bomb Festival going on in the Gate District, although this was different.

"This is the Jungle District's main market," Zoet told him. "It's the biggest one in the district, not to mention the most popular. Like I said, every district has their own use for the these pyramids, and this is our use."

"Are the interiors of every pyramid the same?" Chaud wondered, looking around.

"The giant room on the ground floor? Yeah, pretty much. The second floor is where the light mechanism is kept, and the ground floor is open for use, as long as whatever it gets used for doesn't endanger the light mechanism in any way," Zoet answered. "Here, let's take a break, I'm tired as hell - and we've still got a couple more things to see here before we move on."

Chaud wondered if she meant 'here' as in the Sun Pyramid, or 'here' as in the district itself, and then decided that she probably meant the latter. You could pretty much see all of the market from the entrance of the pyramid, and it was just one big energetic market.

There were a few benches scattered around, so they sat down on an empty one for a while.

"Hey," Zoet said, after a couple of minutes of comfortable silence.

"Hm?"

"Get your PET out."

Chaud bit back a retort - it wouldn't do him much good to annoy her enough to make her abandon him here, even if ProtoMan had maps - and took it out. He handed the PET over when she made a 'gimme' gesture, and watched her tap at the screen for a few moments.

Then she gave him back his PET, and he looked at the screen. There was a map on there, but it didn't seem to be of the Jungle District, or any district in particular.

"That's Nowhere City," Zoet told him. "Everything including the marina, since that's part of the city as well."

"It looks like a weird hexagon," Chaud commented.

"Well, excuse us for living underground." Zoet looked mildly offended, but she didn't call him an idiot or anything, so that was a plus. "How many districts do you know? By name, this is."

Chaud frowned at the map for a moment. "Nearly all of them, actually," he realised. He pointed at the only two he hadn't heard of yet. "I don't know these two, though."

Zoet nodded. "Right. We'll go over all of them, though, just in case - and also because I need to tell you our route for the tour, actually. So. First district we toured, the Haven District, that's here." She pointed at one of the districts marked on the map. "We went on the tramline from the Haven Station to the Jungle Station, and now we're here-" Now she moved her finger to the district below the Haven District. "-in the Jungle District. After this we'll go through the tramline again and go into the Cultural District, and once we're done there, the Gate District. And finally, for today at least, the marina."

"Why?" Chaud asked. "I mean, I'm not complaining, but the tramline splits into a Y above the Cultural District there, so why not just go straight from this district to the Historical District, and then tour everything past that? We could go to the Cultural District and everything else tomorrow."

Zoet closed her eyes for a moment, and Chaud found himself leaning away warily.

"Because," Zoet eventually said, opening her eyes and glaring at him, "I said so. And it's easier to go from this district to the Cultural one anyway. Besides that, the districts on the other side of the city will take more time to get to. But mostly because I said so and if you dare question me again I'll tear out your kneecaps and force them down your throat."

Chaud stared at her, appalled.

" . . . I'm kidding," she said, after a horrifying pause. He was relieved for half a second before being horrified once again as she continued. "I wouldn't force them down your throat. I'd give them to a dog."

Chaud had to actively resist the urge to run for his life.

God, this girl was terrifying.

Why did Arin think this was a good idea, again?

He heard ProtoMan whispering to Flight and Virus, "She wouldn't really hurt him, would she?"

"Ehh," Flight replied, "depends on her mood."

"I would say 'no', but I have no wish to lie to you," Virus also replied.

"Back to what we were on about before we got districted," Zoet said. "The districts. Gate, Cultural, Historical, Jungle, Military, Haven, Battle Dome, Science, and finally the marina itself. We've gone through the Haven District and we're almost done in the Jungle District, and you already know where we're going next for today. Tomorrow, we'll be going through the Historical District, then the Military District, then the Battle Dome, then the Science District, and if I can, I'll see if I can get you a one-day-pass to check out the tram service station in the middle of the city's tunnel network."

"Right," Chaud replied automatically. "Okay."

"I'm not actually going to tear out your kneecaps, you know," Zoet pointed out flatly.

"Sure."

Zoet sighed.

Ten minutes later, Chaud had somehow managed to stop being so terrified of her (but not wary, because he wasn't stupid, no matter what Zoet said), and she took him to the last two stops in their tour of the Jungle District.

The first of these two stops was her school, for some reason.

"During the Bomb Festival," Zoet said, "all schools across the city are closed, seeing as it's a city-wide holiday and all. Which is great for me, because I hate school."

"She is literally never on time and doesn't even bother to pay attention in class," Flight added cheerfully.

"Yet somehow she has good grades in all her classes," Virus said. "We are uncertain as to how. We suspect she may be cheating, but are unable to prove our theory as of yet."

"Be quiet, you two," Zoet told them. She looked at Chaud. "There's two weeks of the Bomb Festival left, so I have two weeks of free time, most of which I'll be spending with you, unfortunately."

"Don't get too excited," Chaud muttered.

"Hush, brat. After the Bomb Festival, I'll be back in school, so you'll need to figure out some way to lie to your friends about where you're going when it's evening or whatever. This isn't my problem so don't bother asking me for help. But if you need me for whatever reason and I'm in school, just go to the front desk and ask for me by name, and when they ask why, just say 'because of reasons'."

"Are . . . are you being serious?" Chaud hesitantly asked.

"Yes."

When Chaud continued to look confused, Flight decided to take pity on him.

"It's a code," she explained. "Every Underground NetBattler has one, in case of an emergency and they need to come in right that second. Zoet's is 'because of reasons', and while they don't know the full story, the staff at school will get Zoet from class or whatever she's doing without asking any questions."

"Last stop here," Zoet declared, turning on her heel and striding away without waiting for Chaud to catch up, "my house."

For a second he was confused, but then he realised it kind of made sense to know where the operative he was shadowing lived.

And, when they arrived at Zoet's house, he was once again shocked. This was turning out to be a permanent state for him.

"You live _here_?" he gasped.

"Didn't you already say that?" Zoet frowned.

"Yes, but . . . I mean . . ."

"Chaud," ProtoMan spoke up, "it's not like this is new. You live in a mansion too."

"Yeah but the mansion I live in isn't _built into a goddamn tree_."

Unlike the log houses that were built on top of the branches of the tree platforms, Zoet's house - or mansion, that is - seemed to be part of the actual tree itself. There were no walkways leading to the tree mansion, isolating it and marking it as a high-society home, and the majority of the mansion seemed to be built into the actual trunk of the tree. The front gates were among the roots of the tree, and while it wasn't exactly an estate, the gardens around the tree mansion were certainly finer than the rest of the overgrown district.

"I'd show you the inside, but there's not enough time," Zoet told him, much to Chaud's disappointment. "Maybe when I have a day off or something. For now, it's time to go to the Cultural District."

 **oooo**

The Cultural District was colourful.

That was the first thing that popped into his mind the moment he stepped into the district proper, and the atmosphere of this district was almost like that of the Bomb Festival, just more spread out. Literally, since it was all over an entire district.

"The Cultural District is the biggest district in the entire city," Zoet told him. "It's home to anything artsy; drama, music, actual arts . . . Basically this is the creative district. It's also where the best cinemas in the city are, and all of the arts colleges and schools."

"Zoet, at one point, expressed a desire to attend one of those schools," Virus put in. Zoet didn't immediately tell it to shut up, so presumably this was a safe topic. "She wished to become a drummer, but failed the entrance exam into the Musical Arts Academy."

"What happened?" Chaud asked curiously.

"I threw the drum sticks at the examiner," Zoet replied with no hint of shame. "I've still got the whole kit actually."

"She still plays sometimes, mainly out of boredom," Flight added. "She's actually really good, too! Hey, maybe you can play for Chaud at some point."

"He wishes," Zoet scoffed.

Zoet took him through the colourful streets - these were wider than any of the other districts' streets, most likely because the amount of space in this particular cavern allowed the district to have wider streets - and to the Cultural District's Sun Pyramid. While they were walking through the wide streets, he noticed a lot of chalk drawings on the ground, and a lot of creative graffiti on various things, most commonly walls but also on various other things like bins or even cars.

"Graffiti isn't really illegal in Nowhere," Zoet said, when she noticed him looking. "It's not really common in most districts, but here, you can't go five steps without seeing at least one bit of graffiti. It's a form of art, so it's encouraged here, unless it's offensive or crude. The chalk drawings are even cooler. The best ones are in the pyramid square."

And indeed they were. There were chalk drawings practically everywhere in the pyramid square, from small ones to large ones, and every single one was completely unique. The first one that really caught Chaud's eye was a large 3D drawing that showed the edge of a precarious cliff, and it seemed so real that he almost felt like he was about to fall into it.

A trio of symbol-based drawings took up quite a bit of space several metres away, and there was a fourth one in-progress. They seemed to be based on Navi elements, and there was a space in the middle, presumably for non-elemental.

Just before the entrance into the Sun Pyramid was another symbol-based drawing, this time a completed chalk drawing of the yin-yang symbol. It wasn't just the simple design of the yin-yang however, it was more . . . detailed. As if the artist had used the yin-yang as a base and had decided to add their own personal spin on it.

"There's also graffiti around the square too, but it's mostly chalk art," Zoet told him. "And inside the pyramid . . ."

She led him inside, and gestured grandly (and somewhat sarcastically) to the interior. Chaud had, despite what Zoet had told him, been expecting something similar to the market in the Jungle District, but this was completely different.

"Welcome to the Cultural Arts Fest," Zoet said. "The exhibition's on all the time, and it changes once a month. Last month I think it was something to do with food, and this month it's fireworks."

"It usually changes exhibitions on the first of every month," Flight added. "But the exhibitions also change on different days if there's a special occasion, such as the Bomb Festival. Hence the fireworks exhibition."

"I know a few people who would be really happy to be here right now," Chaud commented absently, as holographic fireworks exploded over everyone's heads.

They explored the exhibit for a while, and then, as they were walking out of the pyramid's square, Zoet asked if he was hungry.

At that exact moment, Chaud's stomach remembered that he hadn't had any breakfast because Zoet had forced him out of the hotel before he could get anything to eat, and it let out an embarrassingly-loud growl.

"Uh," Chaud said, cheeks slightly red, "yes. I am. Is too late for breakfast or is it late enough for brunch?"

Zoet gave him a strange look. "What the hell is brunch?"

"Late breakfast, early lunch," Chaud explained shortly.

He didn't ask why she didn't know what brunch was - if it had been Lan standing here, he most likely would've gotten offended or shocked, but Chaud wasn't like that. There were cultural differences between every country on the planet, and if Nowhere City (and by extension, Savaro itself) didn't have anything resembling brunch, he wasn't about to kick up a fuss about it. Heck, maybe they _did_ have something like it, but perhaps it had a different name.

The eateries in the Cultural District were just as colourful as everything else. Zoet took him to a place with a sign that, once again, he couldn't read (ProtoMan, being a NetNavi, translated for him - this particular eatery was called Netwrecker Cafe, but despite the name it was fairly calm, aside from the heated NetBattle going on in the corner), and ordered some food for them.

"What do you want?" Zoet asked. Chaud suspected she'd almost forgotten to ask, but he didn't mention it.

He frowned at the menu, looking for something he could recognise, but while the menu was colourful and full of pictures and whatever else, he still couldn't figure out what foods the cafe had available.

"Uh," he said.

"Chaud," ProtoMan called, "I've translated the menu - here, have a look."

He took out his PET and scanned the list that ProtoMan had brought up for him. It turned out that most of the foods on the menu were familiar to him, but there were a few things he'd never heard of. They had kind of weird names, and he wasn't sure if they were special combos or weird Savaron foods.

"You a tourist?" the cashier asked him knowingly. It was easier to pretend that was true, so Chaud nodded. "In that case, I'd recommend something easy - most Savaron foods are kind of . . . spicy, at least for any non-Savaron people. How about this? It's just seafood with rice and a little bit of sauce. Unless you don't like seafood; in which case, you can just have the rice with the sauce."

"I don't mind seafood," Chaud told him.

"I do," Zoet muttered. Chaud ignored her.

"How much is that?" Chaud asked, already reaching for his PET.

"Two and a half coin," the cashier replied cheerfully.

Chaud paused, and stared at him blankly.

"I only have zenny . . .?" he offered weakly. He had no idea what 'coin' was, but it was most likely the currency that Savaro used. Oh, he should have gone into the Haven District's Sun Pyramid. Virus had said that the foreign exchange bureau was there, why didn't he think of this earlier?

"I'll pay for him," Zoet unexpectedly said. "And I'm having the spicy wings meal. Add in a couple of drinks, too. Cola for me."

"Coffee, lots of sugar," Chaud said, when the cashier glanced at him questioningly. He ignored ProtoMan's exasperated sigh.

After a moment of typing in their orders, the chasier nodded. "Right, that'll be eight and a half coin," he told them.

Zoet handed over the money and they were directed to an empty booth, where they sat down opposite each other and placed their PETs on the table.

While they were waiting for their order, Chaud glanced at Zoet's PET curiously. It looked almost exactly like her mothers, except the colours were inverted, so it was black where Arin's was yellow, and yellow where Arin's was black. But there was something strange about the PET, and he just couldn't quite figure it out. Sure, it looked a little different to his own, but that was due to the difference in countries - evidently Nowhere City manufactured their own versions of the PET, but they still used the base model that had been first created in DenTech City, specifically SciLab, by Dr. Tadashi Hikari.

After a moment of pondering, he finally figured out what was so strange about Zoet's PET.

She only had one.

Roahm, one of the leaders of the Underground NetBattlers who Chaud had met yesterday, had two Navis and two PETs - one for each Navi. Zoet also had two Navis, and yet, for some reason, she only had a single PET. And it seemed that Flight and Virus shared the PET quite happily.

While he was curious, he didn't ask. Zoet probably wouldn't appreciate his prying questions, unless he was asking about the city itself (she seemed to be taking her role as his guide in a very serious and mildly smug manner), and despite her reassurances, he was still wary of her breaking any of his bones out of sheer annoyance.

"You don't need to pay me back," Zoet suddenly said, breaking him out of his thoughts.

"Huh?" Chaud asked, glancing at her.

"For the food, dumbass," Zoet snorted impatiently. "It's not that much anyway, so I don't give a damn. But if you wanna buy stuff on your own in this city, you'd better get your . . . what'd you call it?"

"Zenny," Chaud supplied.

"Yeah, that. Get it exchanged at the bureau after we're done with today's tour."

He nodded, and a few minutes later, a waitress came over with their orders and they tucked in. The seafood rice was quite literally that, while Zoet's spicy wings meal was apparently angry red chicken wings and fries. The wings looked extremely spicy and Chaud found himself being glad that the cashier hadn't tried to trick him into ordering the spiciest thing on the menu and had indeed offered something 'easy'.

Was this country's food similar to Namaste's? He doubted it was highly-focused on curry like that country was, but similar in the way that they used spice for a lot of foods.

 **oooo**

After they were done in the Cultural District, they took the tramline to the Gate District, and Zoet took him straight through the Bomb Festival while expertly maneuvering through the crowds as if she did this every day of her life. Chaud had to fight to keep up with her, and when they eventually came into the square and the crowds thinned out a little bit, he heaved a sigh of relief.

Zoet, who heard the sigh, gave him a sideways glance. "Not too fond of crowds, are we?"

"No," Chaud replied tartly. "And I wouldn't peg you as the type to enjoy them either."

"I don't," Zoet said, merely raising an eyebrow at his tone. "Hence why I picked out the best route to avoid being touched by random strangers."

"Why didn't we just avoid the main street entirely?" Chaud demanded, exasperated, as they came up to the entrance of the Gate District's Sun Pyramid.

"Cus then we'd have to double back to get here," Zoet bluntly informed him. "And to do that, it'd mean fighting through thicker crowds. Honestly, brat, do you know nothing about festivals? You think _this_ is packed? You have seen nothing. You are Jon Snow. You know nothing. Now, c'mon, time for the Gate District's Sun Pyramid."

"Who's Jon Snow?" Chaud asked ProtoMan as he followed her inside.

"A character in a book series that you're not old enough to read," ProtoMan explained.

The Gate District's Sun Pyramid was far different to the ones he'd seen so far - while the Jungle District's was a market and the Cultural District's was an exhibition, the Gate District was instead something similar to a throne room, although there was no throne. This room seemed somehow smaller than the others as well, and it took Chaud a moment to realise why.

There were desks set along the walls, and behind those desks were doors leading into rooms with blinds pulled down over large windows. The blinds were most likely for privacy rather than to keep the sun out of the room, seeing as they were both indoors and far underground.

"The Gate District uses this pyramid as their bank," Zoet explained. "It's called the Pyramid Bank. Creative, I know, but it's simple enough to remember. Better than those freaks in the Historical District, anyway."

"If this is a bank, would they have a currency exchange service here?" ProtoMan asked curiously.

"Not as far as I'm aware," Zoet replied dismissively.

"It is best to exchange your money at the bureau, even if the Pyramid Bank does have an exchange service," Virus told Chaud and ProtoMan. "This is not because the Pyramid Bank are not good at their jobs, but because the bureau is more used to currency exchange and therefore more efficient at it."

"There's not much else to check out in the Gate District, unless you wanna go and see some of the book shops they have here," Zoet said, half-dragging Chaud out of the pyramid. "Do that on your own time though, they're awesome but they're hard to find, though I for one am looking forward to watching your struggles."

"Gee, thanks," Chaud said flatly. "What would I ever do without you."

"Most likely you'd die, now hurry up, the Gondola ride to the first station is two hours from Nowhere to the marina and I'd rather spend as little time as possible in a tiny boat with you."

 _You're not such pleasant company yourself,_ Chaud silently replied.

 **oooo**

The two hours it took to get to the first Gondola station were spent mainly in silence - for Chaud, it was somewhat awkward, but he didn't know how Zoet saw the silence. Maybe she enjoyed it, though he couldn't really tell since she spent most of her time staring at the supports on the roof and walls of the tunnel with such intensity that Chaud could imagine them bursting into flames.

He thought she was staring at the supports to make it look as though she was busy, but when they got off the Gondola, she went straight over to one of the security team people and informed them about several cracks and breaks she'd spotted throughout the tunnel.

"It's also the job of the Underground NetBattlers to inform the security team about any defects they see in the city's supports, along with the entrance supports," Flight said, from Chaud's PET.

"What are you doing in my PET?" Chaud asked her, confused.

"Zoet said you looked confused - you still do, actually - so she sent me over to explain."

"Oh," was all he could think to say.

That was . . . surprisingly nice of her. The thought did cross his mind that maybe Zoet had just gotten tired of explaining everything to him, but she didn't have to go through the effort of sending Flight over; she could've easily just let him continue to be confused.

Once Zoet was done talking with the security team, they went outside to the docks.

For several moments he was completely blinded - having spent an almost full two days in Nowhere, he'd gotten used to artificial light and the natural light was startling - so he had to stay still, eyes screwed up against the sun. Not to mention the sudden lack of cool air was just as bad. Maybe Lan had been right, this place certainly did feel like a furnace; at least compared to the underground city.

He finally got used to the sun again, and looked around for Zoet. He'd expected her to just take off and leave him, but to his surprise, she was still standing next to him.

She'd put on a pair of reflective sunglasses and was watching him, arms crossed, but she didn't appear to be impatient.

"Why are you wearing those?" Chaud asked her.

"I live underground, idiot. Natural sunlight hurts my eyes," Zoet replied somewhat irritably.

He was about to point out that she lived with artificial light twenty-four-seven, but then he'd be hypocritical since he'd just been blinded by the very same thing. And if that was how he reacted after two days underground, it would certainly be even worse for an actual native of the city.

That one probably one drawback of living underground, he supposed, but then the pros did outweigh the cons.

"I don't normally come out here," Zoet went on, taking off past the Gondola station's shack. "I've only been out here, what, maybe three times in my entire life? Twice my mom wanted to show me some stuff out here, and the third time was my customary tour of the marina when I joined the Underground NetBattlers."

"Kinda like what we're doing now!" Flight chirped.

Zoet nodded her agreement. "And every single time I come out here, it hurts my eyes, so I stick on my sunglasses. Most people in this city do. Those that don't are the ones who come up here on a regular basis, or they weren't born in the city and are used to natural sunlight."

"What was it like the first time you saw natural sunlight?" Chaud asked her, curious.

"Painful. I didn't know I wasn't supposed to look directly at the damn thing. Nearly blinded me." She looked faintly disgusted, but whether that disgust was directed at the sun for almost blinding her or herself for being such an idiot, Chaud didn't know. He suspected it was a little bit of both.

They stepped off the wooden planks of the docks and onto a wide path running alongside the towering cliffs to their right. At first he thought the path was some sort of strange yellow rock, mainly because of the cliffs being almost the exact same colour, but when his foot sank into it, he realised it was sand.

The path was a beach, and it curved inwards around the corner of the cliffs up ahead.

"This is the Cliff path," Zoet told him as they walked. "It's a ten minute walk from the Gondola station to the marina, and this is the 'main path' so to speak. It's what most civilians use if they want to get to the marina. Normally the Underground NetBattlers use a different entrance, but today we're showing you the civilian route because it's the easiest to use."

"You will see the other entrance if Zoet is assigned a mission in the marina," Virus said. "If this does not happen within an acceptable time period, we will you show on a day off."

It took several minutes to walk along the path. When they turned the corner, more of the path was revealed - as was the marina itself, which was almost as big as one of the districts in Nowhere. The marina looked more like a small city rather than what he knew as a marina, but then he supposed to definition depended on the country. He wouldn't be surprised if some people actually lived in the marina, given its size.

"The marina is kinda like the aquatic version of the Science District, but it's not as big, thank god," Zoet explained. "I don't know the specific details of what the marina does, nor do I actually care, but basically it's everything fish. Fishing, marine biology, marine restoration, and so on."

"Marine restoration?"

Before Zoet could give him a cutting response, Virus spoke up. "The bombing that decimated the old city also impacted the ocean, despite the city being three miles away from it. This was mainly due to wind blowing the toxicity out over the ocean, which in turn destroyed much of the natural habitats of fish and plants. Scientists who work in the marina have been working on marine restoration for the past several decades, attempting to restore the ocean to what it used to be. It is going quite well, although the restoration is far from complete. The restoration is the main project in the marina."

"That's why Mythril is stationed here almost permanently," Flight said. "If viruses or other enemies got in and destroyed the marina's cyberworld, decades of work would go down the drain. So basically, Mythril's the first and last line of defence for the marina's cyberworld - everyone else is stationed here in shifts of four hours, five operatives at a time. At least two of those operatives have to be part of the DoubleNavi program."

"There's also an age limit to the shifts," Zoet added. "Only operatives eighteen and over are given shifts in the marina, so younger recruits like me only ever go into the marina when we've got a mission there. They take the defence of this place really seriously, so they only use experienced operatives."

"So we won't be getting any four-hour-shifts here, then," Chaud mused. "Do people live in the marina?"

"No," Zoet answered. "It might seem a bit impractical, but most people in Nowhere prefer to live within the city itself, no matter where they work. Not having a ceiling over your head all the time is . . . unsettling." As she spoke, she glanced at the sky, frowning a little.

Chaud couldn't see much of her expression anymore, due to her sunglasses, but he'd have to be completely stupid not to guess that she was extremely uncomfortable being out here like this. No wonder she'd only been outside the city a few times before.

"Anyway," Zoet said firmly, turning away from the sky so suddenly that Chaud was almost surprised her neck didn't snap, "time for a tour of the marina. It's a lot like the Science District in looks, but like I said it's basically just fish, so it's not the exact same. It's also the second-smallest district, the smallest being the Gate District."

 **OOOOOO**

I never actually intended to show you the marina itself until they get a mission there - don't worry, they will get a mission there - but I still kinda feel tacky just cutting it off before we get to see what it's like in there.

But Zoet did say that it's a lot like the Science District, so for now, just take that image and add in a bunch of marine stuff. I know a marina is more like a massive collection of docks or whatever, but I felt like Nowhere City would probably do something completely different, so Chaud's 'maybe their definition is different' idea is actually more or less correct.

Anyway, moving on, the districts themselves! I promised you guys a map, and a map I shall give you.

/026mkj34tsh1

The path that Zoet and Chaud followed is fairly obvious from here, and next chapter we'll get to see what the other districts do and what they look like, although we've already somewhat explored the Historical District - but not entirely, and we have yet to see the interior of that particular Sun Pyramid, so there we go.

Also, for those of you wondering, Chaud's inability to read anything in Savaron may or may not turn out to be a plot point. It might end up being a major one or just a minor one, or it might end up becoming a running gag (because he has ProtoMan to translate for him) like his habit of getting lost, but either way it'll be mentioned a lot. I won't focus on Lan's inability to read Savaron because he isn't going to be focused on it, he's too worried about MegaMan at the moment.

Speaking of Lan and MegaMan, I've kind of accidentally shunted the two of them to the side when I've said that I've decided to make them main characters as well. While it is true that I want him and MegaMan to be main characters, most of the plot that I have ideas for actually centre around Chaud and ProtoMan's adventures with the Underground NetBattlers, so I may end up having to drop Lan and MegaMan to side-character status, though I'm still giving them the occasional POVs.

As stated, I'm still showing you Virus and Flight's profiles, so here we go.

/01ndi1falgd8

There's Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

There's Flight.

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

Read and review!


	8. Chapter 8 - Tour of the City, Part 2

Hey, you guys remember Zoet somehow scaling an entire building and coming into Chaud's hotel room through a locked window?

What am I talking about, of course you remember, it was literally last chapter.

Well, it's gonna be a recurring thing. At first it was just gonna be a gag, like Chaud being constantly shocked by Zoet's apparent insanity, but since her home is the Jungle District, it does actually make sense that she'd be able to do something as crazy as scaling a giant building with no visible means of doing so. I'm not explaining how she got in through the window though. Mainly because it's extremely amusing to confuse the hell out of Chaud, and Zoet is the perfect character to do this.

Moving on, now we get to explore the other districts!

The remaining ones are, of course, the Historical District, the Military District, the Battle Dome, the Science District, and finally the service station, although that last one will depend on how much of the chapter the rest of the districts take up. If they take up too much of the chapter, I'll do what I did with the marina and just let you guys imagine it until Zoet and Chaud get a mission in that particular part of the city.

Actually you know what, that sounds like a good idea anyway, I'll do that regardless of whether or not the districts take up most of this chapter. Mainly because it's A) easier, and B) doesn't waste time that could be spent on actual plot.

Though the plot at the moment is basically just 'MegaMan's still horribly injured, and Chaud's being dragged around the city by a lunatic'. It'll pick up eventually, I just want to show you guys the city first.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

He'd been right - his friends, when he'd gotten back to the hotel, had been mad at him for up and leaving without so much as a word. Though he had left that note, they still hadn't been too happy. Apparently 'decided to explore the city early, don't wait for me, Chaud' wasn't good enough for them. He had to endure three minutes of getting yelled at for being selfish before Dr. Hikari came across them and put a stop to it. Lan hadn't been yelling at him, though the half-suspicious looks he kept giving Chaud were vaguely uncomfortable.

This secrecy thing was insane, and he'd only been keeping the secret for two days. How was he going to manage an unknown number of weeks?

He was so intent on trying to figure out how to balance two lives that he hardly got any sleep that night, and when he woke up, it was once again to Zoet shaking his shoulder roughly.

"Is there a reason you're not under the covers?" she asked him.

Chaud glanced at the window - open again, and yeah he'd definitely locked it this time - and sighed.

"Why can't you just use the door like a normal person?" he wondered tiredly.

"Doors are for people with no imagination," was the response.

Of course.

He sighed again as she slid off the bed, and then turned to face him. "Get moving. It's not as early as yesterday, so you've got no excuse for being so tired today. _Move_ , brat."

"He was up until late last night," ProtoMan put in from the PET, thankfully still on the bedside table. Zoet had yet to take it like yesterday. "Could you let him sleep for a little longer, Zoet? Please?"

Zoet sighed heavily. "Fine, whatever," she said testily, as if it was Chaud's fault entirely that he was so tired. It was partly his fault, but mostly it wasn't. "One hour, and then I'm coming back, tired or not."

With that, she walked over to the window and jumped out. Chaud stared blearily at the window for a few more moments, until ProtoMan gently reminded him that he could actually sleep a little more.

He was out in less than a second.

 **oooo**

As promised, Zoet came back into his hotel room an hour later - _exactly_ one hour, which would have impressed him had he not been so freakishly tired - and woke him up with yet another rough shoulder shake.

At least this time he didn't have to wonder how she'd gotten in. The window was still unlocked from an hour ago.

"Did you sleep in your clothes all night?" Zoet demanded, stepping back to let him actually get up off the bed. "What, did you have a party or something?"

"No," Chaud snapped, the lack of sleep making his temper short and overriding any fears he had of making Zoet angry. "I was up all night because you dragged me out early, and I couldn't tell my friends where I was going."

"How exactly does that relate to you getting very little sleep?"

"Because," Chaud said, collecting some clean clothes to wear, "they yelled at me when I got back. All I could do was leave a crummy note." He went to the bathroom that was connected to the room. The good thing about this was that he didn't have to share it with anyone, because he'd bought his own room instead of relying on Yai like everyone else had.

Zoet followed him into the bathroom, and then backed out when he held up a hand to bar her way. He closed the door and started getting undressed.

"Doesn't seem too fair to me," Zoet called through the door. "If you wanna explore the city early, you're gonna explore the city early. Last I checked you were under no obligation to them."

"And last I checked, there wasn't a time limit on this stupid tour," Chaud snapped back. "Why are we going through nine districts in two days?"

"The leaders only gave me a couple of days off to do this, and then we're going into the missions," Zoet told him.

"Why only two days?" ProtoMan asked.

"Apparently Kris thinks whirlwind tours are a good thing. Hell no they're not, but we can get back to doing what operatives normally do tomorrow, so there's that at least."

Chaud started pulling on his clean clothes. "Couldn't you have asked for an extra day or something?" he wondered, voice slightly muffled as he pulled his shirt over his head.

"What?" Zoet asked.

"I said," he called, finally getting the shirt on, "why couldn't you just ask for an extra day?"

"Brat, I've already been given three days off in a row, they're not gonna give me four. That just sends a bad signal to everyone else."

"And why's that?" Dammit, where were his socks? Did he even bring any in with him? Oh, wait, there they were.

"Because I'm the daughter of one of the leaders, and it wouldn't do much good if I was given extra time off. That'd just seem like I'm getting special treatment."

"Don't the other leaders have kids too?"

"Nope," Zoet said. "Or if they do, I haven't heard of them. They're certainly not part of the Underground NetBattlers, at least."

Chaud put his shoes on and folded his dirty clothes, placing them on the floor in front of the bath. He'd wash them whenever he got back.

He quickly washed his face, hoping the cold water would at least wake him up a little more, and then opened the bathroom door and stepped out, glancing around. Zoet was leaning against the wall to his right, and as their eyes met, she raised an eyebrow.

"You haven't changed at all," she said.

"Yes I have," Chaud protested. "These just happen to look the same as the ones I had yesterday."

"You're weird," Zoet decided, pushing off the wall. "Whatever. Ten minutes, lobby. Bye."

And once again she was out the window. Oh well, at least she'd given him enough time to actually get ready. Still not enough time for breakfast however, unless she was planning on another brunch. Which he wouldn't mind, because he'd exchanged his zenny for coin after he'd gotten back yesterday, and had even spent a couple of hours going over what the currency even was with ProtoMan.

 **oooo**

"Did you leave another note?" Zoet asked, as they sat on the tram. They were heading for the Historical District and would apparently eat when they got there.

"I didn't need to, this time," Chaud replied, leaning back and staring at the roof of the tram with half-closed eyes. "I met Tory as I was closing the door."

"He wasn't too happy that Chaud is once again 'being selfish' and going off on his own at ungodly hours," ProtoMan said, "but at least it's better than simply leaving a note. Hopefully this time they won't yell at Chaud when he gets back."

"Those dicks shouldn't have yelled at him to start off with!" Flight cried indignantly. "Did they expect him to hang around them twenty-four-seven?"

"Thank you for defending me," Chaud sighed, "but they do have a point. Without context, just up and leaving so early does seem a bit selfish. Not to mention extremely rude."

"Still didn't need to yell, though."

"You can't argue with that," ProtoMan agreed.

Chaud shook his head and didn't bother arguing the point anymore. He decided to try and doze for the next however long it would take to get to the Historical District (about an hour). The tram ride let him catch up on a little more sleep, so by the time they arrived and Zoet started shaking him again, he was feeling somewhat better.

He felt even better when he ordered some breakfast from a small cafe near the Historical Station. That was mainly because he had a coffee and asked for a lot more sugar than he usually would have had, which was a lot to start off with. Zoet even asked him if he was gonna be high the rest of the day, but he ignored her.

When they were done with breakfast, Zoet took him on a brief tour of the district. It was shorter than the others had been, barring the Gate District, because he'd already somewhat explored this particular district - though at the time he hadn't known that he could go inside the Sun Pyramid, not that he would've gone in had he known, because he'd been too focused on finding the secret HQ of the Underground NetBattlers.

"And finally," Zoet said, "the Sun Pyramid of the Historical District."

They went inside, and Chaud found it vaguely similar to the Cultural Arts Fest, although it was quieter and didn't have so many people. There were 3D holograms here and there, but no fireworks exploding overhead.

"It's a museum," Zoet told him. "They use this room to show the history of the entire city - including the full story of the old city's bombing, and how the founders of the new city built the districts everyone lives in today. Since you can't read it, I'll paraphrase for you.

"The Gate District is the original cavern that the founders started building in. It was too small for the needs of an entire city, so they decided to try digging a tunnel to make more room, and then they found a second, larger cavern - that would be the Cultural District, and at the time, two caverns were enough. But of course the city's population got bigger and bigger, and the needs of the citizens got far too demanding, so they tried to find more caverns like the two they'd found originally. They'd run out of luck at that point, but they'd also gotten really good at construction and digging and everything, so they ended up making the other caverns themselves. Took absolutely ages and the city was apparently noisy as hell for years, but eventually the city grew to be what it is today. I think maybe they're considering making another cavern for a new district, but nothing's been decided yet."

As she spoke, Zoet took him through the exhibits in the pyramid museum, showing him the images of different people - the workmen and workwomen who dug out the caverns, and the original founders who had decided to remake the city underground.

It all would've been more memorable had he been able to actually read the stories on the exhibits, but Zoet's explanation, short though it was, gave him enough information to know the history of the city after it had been bombed. He could easily find out more if he wanted to anyway, but knowing all of this was purely optional. The only reason he hadn't told Zoet it was unnecessary was because he was actually interested.

She then took him on a short tour of the rest of the district, explaining that the Historical District had the most amount of museums in the entire city. That Chaud already knew, so Zoet took him inside one of the museums - the ancient predators one - and showed him how the exhibits worked.

A lot of it was 3D holographic imagery. According to Virus, the museums used to use taxidermy animals, but after an incident with the skins somehow decomposing (they suspected NetCrime, but no one had been caught and it remained an open case), any museums using taxidermy displays had decided to switch to holograms. Those were a lot more interactive and brought in more people, so even after the taxidermy incident was declared safe, the holograms stayed.

"If the criminals were never caught," ProtoMan asked, "why did they declare the taxidermy displays safe? It may happen again."

"Most of the museums that used to use taxidermy exhibits were losing business because they had to be closed for the entire investigation," Zoet said. "The police eventually said it was safe to use the taxidermy exhibits again, but no one was bothered anymore. Most of the exhibits are just sitting in storage now, or they were sold to various buyers around the city."

"Arin got one exhibit from every museum," Flight added. "There's a couple in the foyer, one in the living room, another in the dining hall-"

"Zoet requested one in her bedroom," Virus said before Flight could keep going. "A saber-tooth tiger, one that had been decayed. It is very unsettling but Zoet finds it amusing for some reason."

"It's got no eyes and it's mouth is all melted," Zoet explained, when Chaud looked to her for an explanation. "Plus the body is all . . . It's a zombie tiger, man."

"And you have it in your _bedroom_?" Chaud asked, incredulous.

"Oi, you don't get to judge me," Zoet snapped, glaring at him. Chaud almost pointed out that she was constantly judging him, or at least just insulting him, but he stopped himself.

Still, though. A zombie saber-tooth tiger? That just sounded creepy. No wonder Zoet was insane.

Zoet decided to show him the secret entrances to the HQ, or at least the 'main ones', so to speak.

The first one she showed him was the one he'd already used. She introduced him to the young woman running the antique shop - her name was Hannah and she was a regular citizen employed by the Underground NetBattlers as a 'gatekeeper'. There were five other gatekeepers in the district, all of them in this particular area, since the entire HQ was built into the cavern wall.

Other gatekeepers included a couple who ran a garage that doubled as a small motor museum, a man who seemed homeless at first but turned out to be the guardian for an abandoned tunnel which had been converted into a secret entrance to the HQ, an elderly lady who was the head of a library, and finally another young woman who ran a strangely-exclusive tech shop.

There were other entrances, Zoet told him, but the ones that most of the operatives used were the gatekeeper ones, mainly because it was easier.

 **oooo**

The next district - the Military District - was the home base of the police, security team, army, and every other military-based organisation that you could name for Nowhere City.

The Military District was what he would call a generic 'futuristic city', with skyscrapers practically everywhere and lightly-coloured walkways connecting practically everything. Any buildings smaller than the skyscrapers were instead incredibly wide, almost the size of stadiums. The streets here were clean and the majority of people that they passed were dressed in some sort of uniform.

Any civilians they passed looked as though they should also be wearing some sort of uniform, and Chaud got the impression that maybe they were off-duty or something.

"People do live here, and not just military people," Zoet said. "Normal civilians live in the western sector of the district, but they also live pretty much all over the place. It's just that the western sector is mostly full of regular civilians. The people you see here, even the ones in normal clothes, are most likely military personnel - you can tell by the way they carry themselves, even when they're relaxed. This is one of the cleanest and most orderly places in the entire city. It's basically one big military base, just with a bunch of different military services."

"What about the Sun Pyramid here?" Chaud asked her. "Is that used for a HQ or something?"

The district certainly seemed like the sort of place to do that, and he was mildly pleased when Zoet nodded.

"The security force uses it as their base, which means Kris is there whenever she's not at our HQ or wherever she lives," she replied. "Technically we're not allowed in there, since we're currently in civilian clothing, but the entire security force is aware of the Underground NetBattlers - about the only military organisation where everyone knows the secret instead of just a few people, actually. My point is, we can get in, and I can show you what the security force has done with the interior."

She wasn't lying, either. The moment they walked in through the entrance, the man at the front desk recognised Zoet and let them through into the base with a smile.

The interior of this Sun Pyramid was similar to that of a police department bullpen. There were desks scattered around the large room, and a few closed-off sections like the Pyramid Bank in the Gate District, although the blinds in those rooms weren't pulled down and he could see into them clearly. Those rooms seemed to be interview rooms, although he did see the occasional storage room.

One corner of the interior was dedicated to what looked like an open-plan kitchen, and there were a few people there, chatting while they poured some drinks or cooked up a light snack. In the opposite corner, a collection of electronic bulletin boards were hung on the walls, and messages scrolled across the screens. There were people there, too, looking through the information there and discussing it all in low voices.

And at the very back of the room was a large desk, and behind that desk was Kris Landy, although now her dark red hair was tied up instead of loose.

"Kris!" Zoet called sharply, making a few dozen people pop their heads over the dividers between the desks. Kris herself glanced up as well, and smiled when she recognised the two of them.

"Hello, you two!" Kris greeted them warmly. "How's the tour of the city going? Zoet, I hope you're not scaring the poor kid to death."

"She keeps climbing in through my window," Chaud said before Zoet could reply.

Kris nodded. She didn't seem to concerned about that. "She does that a lot," the leader of the entire Underground NetBattler organisation, and the security force, said. "Not much I can do to stop her, honestly."

"I'd just ignore you even if you did try," Zoet put in, and Kris agreed with a sagely nod.

"So," the red-haired woman began, "are you just visiting right now? Or did you need something?"

"Proving a point," Zoet replied. "I don't think the brat believed me when I said we could come in here whenever we wanted."

Kris raised an eyebrow and glanced at Chaud, who shrugged.

"In Electopia, Officials aren't just allowed to go wherever we want," he explained. "We have to show our ID first, even if the people recognise us, and even then we might still be refused entry. Sometimes we need to hack into systems we're trying to protect, which is . . . mildly counterproductive, but it still works."

Kris nodded understandingly. "That's sort of the problem with official organisations like the NetBattlers," she said. "Since you're fighting with the law on your side, you have to abide by the same laws, otherwise you'd just be the same as the criminals you're trying to catch. The Underground NetBattlers, on the other hand, operate _outside_ the law, and therefore don't need to hold ourselves to the same standards."

"So, basically, you guys are like vigilantes?" Chaud guessed.

"Sort of," Kris hedged, waving her hand in a so-so gesture.

Her PET, which was sitting quietly on her desk, beeped to announce Livid's presence.

"The literal definition of vigilantes is 'a member of a self-appointed group of citizens who undertake law enforcement in their community without legal authority, typically because the legal agencies are thought to be inadequate'," the crimson and black Navi recited. Then he shook his head. "While our organisation could be described as vigilantes, the legal agencies of Nowhere City - such as the police, or the security force - are not inadequate. We just prefer to work with secrecy, and the majority of us are in fact not regular citizens, and are paid by our own government for the work we do."

Chaud nodded, accepting that explanation. It did answer a few questions he had - one of those questions being whether or not the Underground NetBattlers were an actual government-licensed organisation - and it made sense.

They didn't stick around in the security force's pyramid HQ for very long - just long enough to talk with Kris, and meet a few higher-ranking members of her personal team - and after they left, Zoet showed him the HQ for the police and then took him on a brief tour of the western sector, which was just as clean and orderly as everywhere else, except now he could definitely tell there was a difference. There was a more relaxed air about this particular sector.

And that was another thing - most of the districts just divided themselves up in whatever way they pleased, but the Military District divided itself with sectors. There was probably some sort of order to those sectors, but Zoet didn't bother explaining, and Chaud couldn't read the signs marking what sector was what anyway.

 **oooo**

Next was the Battle Dome, the only district which did not house any citizens whatsoever, and also the only one without District in its name. The Battle Dome was aptly named, though Chaud thought maybe Battle _Domes_ would have been a better choice of name for the district. The cavern this district was built in was one of the smaller ones in the city, and was home to only five large buildings and a few dozen smaller ones.

One of the five large buildings was the Sun Pyramid, which was, as with all the districts so far (aside from the marina, which had no need for a pyramid), in the centre. The other four were large domes - otherwise known as stadiums, Zoet said - in the four corners of the district's cavern. The Battle Dome was a lot more spacious than the other districts, probably to accommodate the stadiums, but even so, it was difficult to get around. There were so many people, despite no one actually living there.

"The Sun Pyramid for this district is also a stadium," Zoet explained. "Just a smaller one, for things like the semi-finals and finals of tournaments. The other four stadiums all have their own gimmicks and whatever. Virus?"

The faceless Navi spoke up from her PET. "Of course," it said. "Chaud, ProtoMan, please turn your attention toward the blue stadium to your right. That is known as the Aqua Stadium, and has various battlefields such as an ice stage, a waterfall stage, and other such stages with Aqua-based elements. Now, please turn your attention to the stadium to your left. It is red, and as such is known as the Heat Stadium. Much like the Aqua Stadium, the battle stages in that stadium are all Heat-based. There are lava fields, scorching deserts, even a furnace stage.

"The stadium directly opposite the Aqua Stadium is the Wood Stadium, as you can tell by the green colour. The stages in that stadium are Wood-based, and contain mainly forests, grasslands, fields, or even hedge mazes. I believe there is even a log maze, though I have yet to see this for myself. Finally, across from the Wood Stadium, is the Elec Stadium. The stages in that stadium are somewhat different to the standard theme for the other stadiums - where the others are able to use 'real life' stages themed around their particular element, the Elec Stadium is unable to do this, and instead uses literal stages, with various Elec-themed obstacles placed randomly throughout the stages."

Flight, not one to be outdone, quickly butted in. "One of the stages that me and Virus went through in that stadium was kinda like one of those fashion show stages, with all those cool flashing laser lights and stuff!" she exclaimed. "There were also these lightning rod things scattered around, and they kept sparking everywhere, which kinda made it really hard for me to fly. There's also a stage called Teslapunk Field, but I dunno what the heck that looks like. I kinda wanna find out."

"And the final stadium," Zoet said, "is the Null Stadium, inside the Sun Pyramid. That stadium takes stages from any of the four other Elemental Stadiums - that's what they're called collectively, by the way - but it also makes up its own stages as well. They're always randomly selected, so not even the people who run the stage selection knows what's gonna pop up. You could end up fighting in a lava stage, or a forest stage, or even a space stage."

That last one caught Chaud's attention.

"A space stage?" he repeated. "You mean, with stars and-"

"-and planets and whatever, yeah," Zoet agreed. "It actually looks pretty awesome, but the space stage rarely comes up. If it comes up during the finals, the battle gets an instant awesome rating of, like, ten. Or nine, depending on the Navis and NetOps taking part."

"Ten out of what?"

"Ten. Duh."

"Zoet rates awesomeness on a scale of one to ten," Flight explained. "One is sucky, and ten is the best damn thing since sliced bread. It's really hard to get a ten from her, so that means the space stages are _really_ awesome."

"I actually gave out a zero once," Zoet mused. "That was one of the Aqua stages, wasn't it?"

"It was," Virus agreed. "I believe it was a waterworks stage. The terrain was interesting, but the battle was astoundingly boring, and neither sides thought to use their surroundings to their advantage."

"To this day," Flight added, sniggering a little, "Zoet insists that any battle that has the misfortune of getting a waterworks stage will immediately get a zero from her."

"What would ProtoMan and I get?" Chaud wondered, just out of curiosity.

Zoet paused, and gave him a thoughtful glance. After a moment, she spoke. "I don't know what I'd rate you as," she said. "I haven't seen either of you in a proper NetBattle yet, so for all I know you could either be the best damn NetBattlers to ever grace Nowhere City with their presence, or you could suck in comparison to the weirdness I'm used to here. And that high-powered snowball fight doesn't count, since it wasn't a NetBattle, just us being immature little shits."

That sounded fair, although the aggressive manner in which she said it kind of rubbed him the wrong way.

Either way, perhaps this was his chance to get Zoet to stop calling him stupid or brat - if only he could get a high rating from her. Maybe he could try asking Flight and Virus exactly what he'd need to do in order to impress Zoet enough for an awesomeness rating that wasn't two or something. He wasn't going to bother for a ten - Flight had already said that was damn-near impossible to get anyway - but maybe something like six or seven.

Well, if he ever got a chance to show her his NetBattling skills, anyway. At the moment it didn't matter so much, they were still just touring the city, but at least he had a goal to work towards while shadowing her.

"So, what're all the smaller buildings?" he asked, drawing himself out of his thoughts.

"Food stands, worker places, etc," Zoet replied. "There's also buildings for competitors to rest in while they wait for their next battle. Right then, I'll give you a brief look inside the five stadiums, and then we're off to the Science District - Mom said you've already been there when you went to the Navi Research Labs, right?"

"Yeah, that's right," Chaud agreed as they started towards the nearest stadium, which happened to be the Heat Stadium. "What's the Sun Pyramid's interior for that district, anyway?"

"Some sort of workshop," Zoet said, shrugging. "I'm not entirely certain, but I think it might be a robotics one. They make some weird shit in there, I can tell you that right now."

 **oooo**

"Lan."

At first he didn't hear his dad's voice, but then Lan heard his name being called again, and he glanced up.

The data-bone reconstruction room was brimming with quiet excitement, the twenty or so scientists who worked in it scurrying around - as they'd been doing for the past couple of days, when they were checking MegaMan's data and scanning him and doing everything they could to figure out the best way to fix his broken spine. Not much had changed, at least not to Lan, who was still too focused on MegaMan to really pay attention to what was going on around him (unless it was food, though his appetite wasn't what it used to be).

"What is it?" Lan asked.

Dad gave him a soft smile. "Professor Hestia tells me they're almost done reading the data," he reported. "He thinks they'll be done by tomorrow morning, and then we can figure out the exact damage done to MegaMan, and how they think we should proceed."

To Lan, who had been moping around almost the entire time he'd been in Nowhere City, the news was the best thing he'd heard so far. Once the data had been properly read, they could figure out how to fix MegaMan! Sure, the actual procedure wouldn't take place for some weeks, because the scientists still needed to test out the healing method on dummy Navis, but still.

Lan was hopeful.

"I'll email everyone," he said, grinning back at his dad. "Do you think Professor Hestia'll let them be here tomorrow?"

"I don't mind at all," Professor Hestia, coming over from the scanner, informed him. "Your friends are worried about MegaMan as well, so I know they'll need to be here as well."

Lan nodded, and then paused. He frowned down at his PET, having suddenly thought of something - or some _one_.

"Lan?" Dad prompted. "What's wrong?"

"I . . ." Lan trailed off, and tried again. "It's about Chaud," he admitted, looking up. "He's kinda been avoiding us, I think, especially after yesterday. If . . . if I send an email to him, would he wanna come? Cus he'd know everyone else would be here . . ."

"I don't think Chaud would miss something like this, if he had a choice," Dad said calmly. "I'm not sure what he's doing when he isn't with us, but if he doesn't come tomorrow, don't think badly of him, alright?"

"I . . . I'll try not to, but I can't help it if I get angry," Lan murmured. He tightened his grip on his PET. "Man . . . As if things weren't bad enough. MegaMan's in a bad place, everyone's gotten into a huge fight, and now Chaud's avoiding us."

"He isn't avoiding us," Dad replied, with such certainty that Lan wondered if his dad knew what Chaud was doing and just hadn't told anyone.

Did that mean Chaud did have some sort of secret agenda in coming here? And did that also mean that Lan's dad knew what it was, and was trying to help cover it up?

After all, Dad had said that it was Chaud who had reminded him about Nowhere City. If Lan remembered right, Chaud had come to the SciLab in order to talk to his dad about something, and he'd only learnt about MegaMan's injury _after_ he got there. So whatever this was, Chaud had already been planning on coming here, and he'd tagged along with them, using MegaMan as the perfect excuse.

For a moment, white-hot rage burned inside Lan. How _dare_ Chaud use MegaMan's horrible injuries for his secret mission or whatever? What kind of decent person would use his friends like this? It just wasn't _right_!

However, it made sense to do it like that. Whatever Chaud's mission was, he obviously couldn't get into the city without some sort of excuse, and besides, he had been genuinely concerned about MegaMan - and Lan, who hadn't missed the worried frowns the dual-haired boy had sent his way occasionally - so it wasn't as if Chaud was being completely heartless with this.

But even though he could understand Chaud's actions, like he'd told his dad, he couldn't help feeling angry.

 **OOOOOO**

Little bit of Lan at the end, because I've been neglecting his POVs and I kinda forgot that there's more about the Underground NetBattlers that I need to write before I can even think about switching POVs drastically.

I won't tell you what's coming next with the Underground NetBattlers, mainly because it'll just spoil everything, but I can tell you that I'm hoping to have another Lan POV at the end, or at the very least have the main canon characters all together in one place once again instead of just mentioning it all in the narration.

Most likely it'll be entirely from Chaud's POV again, or maybe I'll switch to ProtoMan's POV for simplicity's sake at some point, but whatever happens, things will start to get exciting during the next chapter.

Alright, once again, Navi profiles, which I realise I forgot during the first AN of this chapter . . . *heavy sigh* I'm doing them now anyway, doesn't matter.

/01ndi1falgd8

Say hi to Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

And hi to Flight!

/026mkj34tsh1

That there's the map of the entire city . . .

And incidentally, I've also created my own version of what Zoet, Flight, and Virus would look like if they could do Cross Fusion. Here you go!

/01n8525ed1vv

I also included a description of what abilities she would have. The visor-thing is relevant to the fact that she has to wear sunglasses when she's outside the city, by the way. They look a lot like sunglasses, which is intentional because, again, she wears sunglasses. Her current pair look absolutely nothing like that. And oops I did a spoiler by saying 'current pair', but they're just sunglasses, not even that big of a plot point honestly. But yeah Zoet's gonna get some new sunglasses that resemble the visor in the Cross Fusion drawing.

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

Read and review!


	9. Chapter 9 - First Day Jitters

I actually forgot to mention this last chapter, but the reason why I didn't do a tour of the Science District is because we've already been there. It's not too much of an excuse, considering that I gave you guys a tour of the Gate District (or at least the Sun Pyramid), but there isn't honestly much I could think of to write for that.

And besides, I'm still leery of making these chapters too long after what happened with chapter five. So not doing the Science District was probably for the best - and I added in that brief conversation about that district's Sun Pyramid interior just so you'd know what was in there.

It's definitely a robotics workshop, by the way. If I can think of something for it, I'll write a chapter with the Science District's Sun Pyramid.

Anyway, Virus and Flight's things.

/01ndi1falgd8

There's Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

Here's Flight.

/026mkj34tsh1

And that's the map of the city. I'm not gonna show you the Cross Fusion thing again since it's not relevant to the story (aside from the future sunglasses).

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Lan had sent him an email asking him to come to the Navi Research Labs because the scientists there had finally finished reading MegaMan's data from the scanner. Apparently they were going to tell everyone the full extent of the damage done to the broken spine, and any other damages that may have been done (Dr. Hikari had fixed what he could, but little bits and pieces of damage, not including the major one, still remained).

But Chaud couldn't go.

He wanted to, he was worried about MegaMan and he wanted to know what exactly the plan was for his reconstruction, and he also wanted to be there for Lan and his parents.

But he just couldn't. With a heavy heart, he told ProtoMan to reply to the email, apologising and saying that, while he had other engagements, he would still be thinking of them.

Hopefully that was enough. This friendship thing was complicated and delicate and Chaud wasn't entirely sure he would ever understand how much people were willing to tolerate before they snapped.

"No note today?" Zoet asked as she led him through the maze-like corridors of the Underground NetBattlers HQ. She'd said they were starting missions today, but they apparently weren't heading for wherever the operatives got their missions from. Zoet had refused to give away the 'surprise' when he asked for an explanation, and Chaud had learnt by now not to bother prying for an answer.

"Since you actually got me up at a reasonable hour today," Chaud replied, "I didn't need to leave one. I told Dr. Hikari where I was going and he said he'd try to cover for me."

"He also said he couldn't guarantee how the others would react," ProtoMan reminded him quietly.

Chaud sighed. "There is that, yeah," he mumbled.

"Not my problem," Zoet announced, suddenly veering off to the right - Chaud, startled, froze in place for a brief moment before trotting after her lest she leave him behind.

The corridor they were going down now was one that he'd seen during the tour of the HQ, but Zoet had said that she was leaving it out for some other time. Clearly this was that other time, and at the end of the corridor - which was relatively short in comparison to most hallways and corridors in this place - was a single door with an electronic sign (that he couldn't read, again, ugh this was gonna get extremely annoying) above it.

Zoet held out her PET to a scanner next to the door. That was odd, the last few doors they'd needed to use a code for - the conference room that he'd met the leaders in, the common room that Arin had introduced him to Zoet in, even the training room itself - had needed proper codes punched in by the operatives.

Instead, this room, whatever it was, seemed to use the operative's PETs as the codes.

The door opened, and Zoet led him inside to a dark space. As soon as they walked in, the door slid shut behind them, and they were left in darkness - for all of a single second, as the lights came on almost immediately after the door closed.

They were inside a storage room that wouldn't have looked out of place in a factory. There were metal storage shelves going on and on in almost every direction, and at the end of the aisle in front of him, he could just about make out what looked like a wide-open space.

"This is where we store our battle suits," Zoet explained, taking off down the aisle. Chaud quickly followed, unable to stop his gaze from darting in every possible direction. "The battle suits are what operatives use when we're out and about - on missions, on patrol, or even when the older operatives are on marina watch."

"You're probably sick of hearing this by now," Flight said, "but since the Underground NetBattlers work from the shadows, it wouldn't do us much good if we didn't have some sort of disguise whenever we go out in public. Otherwise the secrecy thing just wouldn't work, and everyone would know about us - or at least they'd know about anyone who worked here, that is. We don't exactly advertise our organisation's name, so the public have come up with their own special nickname for us."

"They hail us as Shades, for the colour of the battle suit," Virus agreed. "At the end of this aisle is the fitting area, where new recruits are given a battle suit to try on. While you are with us, you must also use a battle suit, but please be aware that it is only a loan - this is because you are not officially part of the Underground NetBattlers."

"So you'll have to give it back when you're done here," Zoet added sharply, as if Chaud had been considering stealing a battle suit, whatever that was.

"I wouldn't take one if I didn't have permission," he replied just as sharply. "I'm not a thief."

Zoet just looked at him and didn't reply.

They got the end of the aisle before Chaud could snap at her, and stepped into the wide-open space that he'd seen from the entrance.

On the walls hung a few full-body dark grey suits, with black gloves, boots, belts, and helmets completing the set. Strangely enough, all of the suits appeared to be the same size and shape. That didn't make much sense to Chaud, but he didn't say anything in case Zoet was about to explain it.

Zoet went over to one of the hung-up suits and pulled down the black helmet next to it. It looked almost like a biker helmet, and it had a reflective visor covering where the face of the wearer would be.

"Here," she said, throwing it to him. "Try that on. The helmets are the only things that we have to make in different sizes, so we gotta make sure we get the right size for you. You're about the same size as I am, so that helmet should fit."

Chaud frowned at the helmet for a moment, and then mentally shrugged. It wouldn't hurt to try it, he guessed.

He slipped the helmet on over his head, and glanced up. Everything was tinted darker now, a result of the black visor, but what surprised him was how light it was. He'd expected it to be heavy, or at least somewhat weighted, but it was the opposite.

Zoet looked at him and nodded. "Seems like it fits," she said. "Take off your clothes."

Chaud's eyes widened beneath the helmet and he stared at her, alarmed.

"Um," he said (more like squeaked), "why?"

"Dumbass," Zoet snapped. "You think you're gonna get one of these damn things on while you're wearing those clothes? These suits are skin-tight, brat. Take off your damn clothes. Unless you want me to do it _for_ you."

"N-no, I can do it myself!" Chaud quickly assured her. "But, uh, would you mind . . ."

"What?" Zoet demanded.

" . . . Could you turn around?" Chaud meekly asked.

Zoet sighed heavily. "Fine," she said irritably. "By the way, take off everything - your socks and shoes too. You can leave your underwear on though. Unless you like going commando, in which case, you're an even bigger idiot than I thought you were."

She turned around before he could think of a reply, and Chaud sighed. He started to strip as quickly as possible, dumping his clothes in a pile next to him.

"Is this really okay?" ProtoMan wondered, as Chaud placed the PET on top of his jacket.

"She told me to do it," Chaud pointed out as he pulled off his trousers.

"If Zoet told you to jump off a bridge, would you do it?" ProtoMan muttered. Chaud probably wasn't supposed to hear that, so he didn't respond.

A minute or two later, Chaud was down to just his underwear.

"I'm done, now what?" he asked.

Without turning around, Zoet pointed to the suit she'd taken the helmet from. "Grab the suit and put it on. You can leave the gloves, boots, and belt for now. The suit's got a zip on the back that goes all the way to the top of the neck, so let me know when you've got it on and I'll zip you up."

"Got it," Chaud agreed. He grabbed the black suit that she'd gestured to and slipped into it, figuring out which side was the front from what Zoet had said. "Done."

Zoet turned - even though he was technically wearing something, he still cringed because he felt incredibly naked - and walked around behind him. She carefully zipped up the back of the suit to the top of his neck, and he leaned his head forward so Zoet could get it into the part that went into the bottom of the helmet.

She stepped around to the front and watched him for a moment, arms crossed.

"What now?" Chaud asked, but no sooner had the words left his mouth did he find himself letting out a squeak of alarm as the suit - which had been sort of hanging off his body because of its size - suddenly tightened around his body.

"And that's what I meant by skin-tight," Zoet informed him. "You put on the helmet first because that's what scans your body size, and when you put on the suit afterwards, the suit can adapt to your size and will shrink or expand however it needs to in order to fit your body perfectly. The belt, gloves, and the boots are the same. Put the boots on."

He did so, and it was true - the boots shrank to fit him as soon as he put them on, and although he'd been expecting it this time, it still startled him. Well, you'd be startled too if your clothes suddenly shrank to fit your exact size.

The gloves, when he tried them on as well, did the same thing, as did the belt.

"And here comes the fun part," Zoet told him, though her deadpan tone made it seem like sarcasm. "You see that red gem there, on the back of your right hand?"

Chaud lifted up his right hand and looked at the small red gem embedded on the back of the black glove.

"That's a wireless jack-in," Zoet explained. "We call it the jack-in gem. You can download your Navi - or Navis - into the battle suit, and the jack-in gem allows you to jack them into whatever ports you want. The entire suit is basically a glorified PET. That silver case on the back of your wrist is the download slot, where you can download battle chips for your Navi to use. The belt is used for these packs, which are used for _storing_ battle chips." She held up a small black pack that looked similar to chip folders, and then reached over to his waist and clipped it onto the belt. "You can have up to four packs if you want, but most people go with however many Navis they've got - so if they have one Navi, they have one pack, or if they have two Navis, they'll have two packs, and so on. Your helmet is your direct connection to your Navi, and anyone else, and your Navi will also be able to activate different settings on the visor, like night-vision or whatever. It's basically a HUD controlled by you and your Navi."

"Woah," Chaud breathed. "This is . . . actually pretty cool. I can see why you'd be worried about me stealing it now."

"Yes," Zoet said dryly, "but don't actually steal it. Otherwise I'll hunt you down."

"Understood," he quickly agreed.

"This is the standard battle suit, with just one jack-in gem and one download slot," Zoet went on. "Anyone with more than one Navi uses a different suit. I'll show you mine."

She walked off, and Chaud quickly gathered up his clothes and PET and followed her over to one of the aisles. They walked down about halfway, and then paused at one particular section. The sections were all metal boxes, like safes in a bank or something, and had scanners much like the door on the front. Zoet held up her PET, waiting a moment for it to be scanned, and then she opened the box and pulled out two black gloves similar to the ones Chaud was wearing with the battle suit.

"Since I have two Navis," she said, holding the gloves up, "I need two jack-in gems and two download slots. Both gems are on the back of both of the hands, and the same is true for the download slots. Virus and Flight like to switch gems every now and then. I don't know why, both of them are exactly the same, but whatever. If I only had a single Navi, my gem would be on the left glove instead of the right, since I'm left-handed."

Chaud held up his gloved hand, peering at the gem there. "So the gem goes on the back of whatever hand is dominant for the operative in question?" he guessed.

"That's right," Zoet agreed. She paused, and frowned at him. "You are right-handed, right?"

"I am," Chaud said.

"Good. Don't wanna make a mistake, I'd look like an idiot."

Chaud fought the urge to roll his eyes - would Zoet even see it if he did? Was the visor masking his face entirely, or could she still see him this close up? - and instead asked a question that he'd thought of when Zoet mentioned the different types of suits.

"What about people with more than two Navis?" he asked. The idea of having more than just a single Navi had been somewhat preposterous to him before coming here, but apparently the standards of the Underground NetBattlers were higher than those of the Electopian NetBattlers (that, or everyone here was just crazy enough that they could handle the stress of having to operate two or more completely different Navis).

"The jack-in gems and the download slots are on the thicker part of the gloves, near the elbow here," Zoet replied, showing him the indicated part. "It's a little bit awkward to work at first, but anyone with three or four Navis gets used to it eventually. Well, that's what they say, anyway. I wouldn't know and I wouldn't _want_ to know. Just dealing with these two nutcases is more than enough for me."

"Nutcase yourself!" Flight retorted.

"Do not forget to tell them about the Shade program," Virus reminded Zoet.

"I was getting to that, what is it with you two and telling me to do shit I'm already doing?" Zoet snapped.

"Shade program?" Chaud asked, drawing them away from the growing argument.

"That's probably part of the reason why the public calls us Shades," Zoet explained, glancing at him. "Mom and Kris worked together with the R&D people to make a program to conceal the identities of the NetNavis. It basically coats your Navi in a cloak of shadows, and stops their original data from being read. So basically it turns them into Shade versions of themselves, although only their appearance is changed. Virus and Flight have the Shade program installed - Virus is called Vital Shade when it's using the program, and Flight is called Golden Shade when she's using it."

"Since ProtoMan's main colour is red," Flight said, "I'd guess he'd be called Red Shade. Not Crimson Shade, since that's already taken by Livid, and Vermillion Shade is also taken."

"Red Shade is not, for reasons unknown," Virus agreed. "We are uncertain as to why, but perhaps people did not wish for such a bland name."

"And you're gonna call ProtoMan Red Shade?" Chaud sighed. "Thanks."

"I don't mind the name," ProtoMan spoke up soothingly. "Honestly, it's better than being Blood Shade or Sword Shade or something. Those just sound ridiculous."

"Don't let Havoc or Scissors hear you say that," Flight warned him. "Havoc's called Blood Shade and Scissors is called Sword Shade. They're both really into the whole revenge thing."

 **oooo**

Zoet showed him how to download ProtoMan into the battle suit - which, now that Chaud thought about it, closely resembled a Navi suit - and then helped him find an empty box to put his clothes in. She also helped him scan his PET's ID into the box, so only he could open and close it. Then she changed into her own battle suit and led him back through the corridors, all the way to the level directly below the command centre.

On this particular level was the mission room, where operatives could take on various missions from the bulletin boards on the walls. They were all interactive electronic boards that you could jack into, but apparently if you were a special operative you could access the mission room's cyberworld without having to be in the room itself.

"You're not a special operative, so we're gonna have to go there physically," Zoet explained. "Most of the missions are all normal, everyday things - like helping people with minor problems, or doing odd jobs for whoever asks for it, that kind of thing. Occasionally you'll get some weird missions from the board, or some dangerous missions, but the only _really_ dangerous missions - like chasing criminals or whatever - are assigned directly from Kris or one of her team to a specifically-selected operative, or operatives if need be. For now we'll just start with an easy one, since it's your first time doing this, and hopefully we'll get some better missions later on."

"So, basically, this is kind of like the city NetBattlers," Chaud said, as they walked into the mission room.

At this time of day, there was hardly anyone around. There were four bulletin boards built into two of the walls - two on each wall, directly opposite each other - with a wide monitor built into the wall between the bulletin boards. A few of the people in the mission room wore battle suits like Zoet and Chaud, but others just wore normal clothing.

"I don't know what a city NetBattler is," Zoet said. "If you mean us doing odd jobs like this weirdness, then yeah, this is kind of like your city NetBattlers."

The bulletin boards didn't seem to have any sort of special gimmicks to them - they all looked basically the same, at least to Chaud, who couldn't read a word of what was on the screens. Zoet took him over to one of the nearer boards and stared at it for a few quiet moments, and then reached out and selected a seemingly-random mission. A window popped up on the board, and she typed in something on the keyboard that came with it, and then when the new window vanished, Chaud saw that the mission Zoet had selected was also gone.

"All you have to do is select whatever mission you want, and then you type in your name on the window that pops up, and you'll be assigned that mission," Zoet said. "The information gets sent to your PET, and you can decline it if you decide you don't want to do it, in which case it'll just end up back here for someone else to select."

"So what did you select?" Chaud asked her curiously. With how these people operated, it could have been espionage or something. Especially with these battle suits looking vaguely like ninja outfits.

"This one's titled 'Kitty Virus Problem'," Zoet said, reading the information off her PET. "It's in a company located in this district, actually. Apparently some idiot started a prank war and things escalated until there were viruses taking over the entire damn system. Most of them are Kitty viruses for some reason."

"Kitty viruses?" Chaud repeated. He'd never heard of that kind of virus before. Was it Savaron-exclusive?

"Kind of like some weird demented cat-thing," Flight told him cheerfully. "It looks like a skeleton with rotted skin and black eyes. It was orginally a halloween cyberworld decoration, but it got infected with a virus and turned into one itself, and then it kind of reproduced literally all over the place, so now it's a common Savaron virus."

Well, that answered that question.

"How difficult are they to delete?" ProtoMan wondered.

"Not very," Virus assured him. "It is their sheer numbers that make them formidable opponents, however. One or two on their own are not much of a threat, but if they are in groups of seven or more - which they often are - they mob and destroy to their digital hearts' content."

"And from the sound of it," Zoet added, "some dumbass thought it'd be a good idea to let a batch loose in the company network. Honestly, the stupidity of some people just amazes me sometimes."

Chaud had to agree with her on that one. You don't just let a dangerous virus, no matter how common or easy to delete, loose into any kind of network. Not even as a prank.

The stupidity of some people indeed.

 **oooo**

Lan, his friends, and his parents stood in the data-bone reconstruction room, facing Professor Hestia and the various scientists he was in charge of. They'd arrived a while ago, but the scientists had needed a little more time to finish reading the data properly, and now, at last, they were really done.

"Most of the damage was, like we thought, done to his spine," Professor Hestia explained, launching straight into things. "That's where we'll be focusing most of our efforts once we have a better idea of how to proceed with the reconstruction. The other damages done to MegaMan's body are minor in comparison, and will heal on their own given enough time, so all we need to do is make sure that MegaMan has the help he needs."

Lan tightened his grip on his PET almost unconsciously. He was going to help MegaMan, no matter what, and he would do whatever it took to make things right again.

"The broken spine, we believe, is a result of a combination of events," Professor Hestia went on. "While GutsMan's punch weakened MegaMan's spine, he did not, in fact, cause the actual break itself. That came when MegaMan crashed to the ground moments later, and his spine snapped upon impact. So while GutsMan did create the oppertunity, he isn't the actual cause, and therefore he and Dex have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about."

Maylu gave Dex an encouraging smile. "See?" she whispered. "There was no need to worry, and no one ever blamed you two anyway."

Dex smiled back weakly. A relieved murmur from his PET told Lan that GutsMan felt the same way as his NetOp.

"Since the spine was snapped in a more or less clean break, the damage isn't as bad as it could have been," the professor said. "We'll begin testing the reconstruction on dummy Navis in two days' time, and estimate that we should have a proper method in four weeks, five at the most. I can't say how long it will take to actually fix MegaMan himself, that may take more time than testing the method on dummy Navis, but I can assure you, we'll be doing everything we can to make sure he gets fixed."

He focused his attention on Lan.

"We will fix your brother," Professor Hestia promised. "Upon my honour as a researcher, as a scientist, as a professor - I swear we will fix him."

"Thank you," Lan whispered with feeling.

 **oooo**

"I still can't believe him," Maylu fumed. Half an hour had passed, and they'd all decided to go out for lunch together, so now they were sitting in a large cafe waiting for their food to be delivered.

Lan wasn't sure who had brought it up, but they'd suddenly started talking about Chaud and how he hadn't shown up at all. Aside from that crummy email, there'd been no contact from him.

"Maybe he's just really busy." Tory, ever the peacekeeper, tried to soothe the situation. It was kind of strange that he was suddenly trying to defend Chaud when, just a couple of days ago, he'd also yelled at Chaud for just up and leaving without a proper warning.

"What, are you his biggest fan now, or something?" Maylu snapped. "Don't forget you were just as mad at him as we were, when he decided to just ditch us in favour of exploring the city on his own. I mean, honestly, what's wrong with exploring with us? Is he suddenly too good for us?"

"I had a chance to think about things," Tory replied, ignoring Maylu's biting sarcasm. "While I am a little angry that he decided to go off on his own, I know he's the type who _prefers_ to be on his own. If he wants to explore, then he can. It was mostly him going off without a proper warning that made me angry though, and he did apologise, so it's fine."

"Oh, is it," Maylu flatly said.

"What could he be doing that's so much more important than this, anyway?" Yai huffed, arms crossed. She was glaring at the strawberry milk that she'd ordered - apparently it tasted weird to her, somehow it was spicier than it was meant to be, and talking about Chaud wasn't helping to calm her down.

"Not much to do in a place like this," Dex said. "Unless he's gone to the festival or something."

"I don't think so," Maylu retorted. "Otherwise one of us would have seen him. Lan, what do you think?"

"I think he's just being Chaud," Lan muttered. "Too cool to hang around with us, and when he does, he has some sort of secret agenda. He used MegaMan as an excuse to get into the city, did you know?"

His friends looked at him in surprise.

"I didn't," Maylu said, narrowing her eyes. "That Chaud . . . How could he? Whatever he's doing surely can't be so important that he'd need to use MegaMan's horrible injuries as an excuse! What decent person would do that? _He's_ horrible!"

"I know," Lan agreed, glad that Maylu was on his side. "I thought he was getting better with us, but apparently not. He doesn't care about us at all."

Maylu nodded, but Tory looked uncertain.

"I don't think we should go that far," he said quietly. "I mean, if he didn't care, he wouldn't have stayed with us, would he? He'd have just gone off on his own right from the start. But he didn't."

"Oh, stop being so sensitive, would you?" Yai snapped. "Chaud's a prick and that's all there is to it. We don't need him anyway. When I see him, I'm gonna give him a piece of my mind!"

"Miss Yai, perhaps you should not be so hasty?" Glide suggested from her PET. "After all, there's no way of knowing exactly what it is that he's doing. For all we know, he could be here on an assignment from the NetBattler society."

"If he _was_ on an assignment, he would've told us," Yai pointed out angrily. "And even if he is, that's no excuse to abandon us when we need him."

Lan's parents came back at that moment with the food they'd ordered, so they couldn't talk any further. They probably could have done, actually, but Mom and Dad seemed to be trying to defend Chaud for whatever reason - Mom he could understand, she was the best mom on the planet and the nicest person ever, but Dad he wasn't too sure about. Lan was still pretty sure that Dad knew why Chaud was here, and that idea had only been reinforced when Dad had covered for Chaud's absence this morning.

Or tried to, anyway. Lan wasn't buying it.

Chaud was up to something, and while he may not have cared at first, now he was just angry. If it had been the other way around and ProtoMan had been the one injured like this, Lan wouldn't have let Chaud out of his sight for a moment.

He was still simmering in anger when they got back to the hotel a few hours later. Dad had announced that he wanted to show them around the Navi Research Lab properly, and had even asked Professor Hestia to help give them a real tour, and it had taken a while to go through all the buildings. Normally that would have fascinated Lan, but he was too angry to pay attention.

They were just heading to the lifts, about to go up to their rooms for a brief rest before heading back down for dinner, when the object of Lan's anger appeared.

"Hey!" Chaud called, brightening up when he spotted the group. He made his way over to them quickly. "How'd it go? Will MegaMan be okay?"

Dad was about to reply, but Lan beat him to it.

"He's gonna be fine," Lan snapped. "Not that you care, anyway."

Chaud looked surprised, and a little hurt. "What? Of course I care! I asked, didn't I?"

"You weren't even there!" Lan spat, ignoring his dad's warning glance. "All you did was send some stupid email! _Sorry, I can't come, I have other engagements, but my thoughts are with you all, and I hope it goes well_. What kind of response is that, anyway?"

"I . . . thought it would be fine . . ." Chaud said hesitantly.

"Well it wasn't!" Lan retorted sharply.

He was savagely pleased when Chaud actually flinched at his tone.

"We've been in this city for four days, and you've made it pretty clear that you don't care about MegaMan or any of us," Lan went on.

"Lan-" Dad began sternly.

Lan ignored him. "What the hell is so important that you think you can use MegaMan as an excuse to get into this place, anyway? No, wait, don't say it - you can't tell me, right? It's a secret? Official business that I can't know about because I'm just some stupid kid? Well, here's a newsflash for you, _we're the same age_! If I'm stupid, then you're even worse, because if you think for one second that I'm gonna tolerate this any more, then you've got another thing coming!"

"I . . . I just . . ." Chaud trailed off when Lan growled.

"Don't try to make excuses for yourself," he barked. "You always do this - remember that camping trip we went on? You said you couldn't go, and then suddenly you showed up, and we thought maybe you'd changed your mind, but no! You just came because we were the excuse you needed to get into the dam! This is the same thing all over again, except it's worse now, 'cus MegaMan's hurt and he's not talking to me or anyone and you don't care at all! You _never_ cared!"

"I _do_ care!" Chaud cried, finally finding his voice. "Just because I'm not around twenty-four-seven doesn't mean that I suddenly don't want him to get better, or that I'm not concerned about anyone here! What has gotten into you people lately? Why do you keep yelling at me all of a sudden? I've done nothing wrong!"

"You abandoned us," Maylu snapped. "You abandoned Lan and MegaMan. That's the worst wrong you can do, especially now!"

"Stop this arguing!"

Everyone froze, and turned to face Lan's mom, who was glaring at them with her hands on her hips. As she shifted her angry gaze from one person to another, Lan began to feel ashamed of himself - but he wasn't sorry. This was Chaud's fault, not his.

"I know tensions are high right now," Mom said coldly, "but that's no excuse to start shouting at each other, or to accuse our friends of things that aren't true."

"But-" Lan protested. He went quiet when Mom frowned at him.

"Lan's got a point, though," Yai dared to say. "If Chaud really did care, he would've made sure he could be here no matter what."

"I can't tell them no!" Chaud protested.

"Can't tell _who_ no?" Lan demanded.

Chaud looked at him and didn't reply.

"See?" Lan went on. "I bet you're just making it all up anyway-"

" _Lan_ ," Mom snapped.

Lan dropped his gaze to his feet and muttered angrily.

"If all you're going to be doing is arguing, then maybe you all need to spend some time apart," Mom said. "Give yourselves a chance to actually think about this - and I mean all of you, even you, Chaud."

"But I haven't done anything wrong," Chaud mumbled.

 _Yes you have,_ Lan thought, but he didn't dare say it out loud.

Mom clapped her hands together sharply. "Alright, everyone into the lifts. And if I hear _anyone_ trying to start an argument or anything of the sort, you'll go up the stairs instead."

 **OOOOOO**

Oooooh tensions are definitely running high!

Lan's anger does seem a little bit unreasonable, but take into account the fact that his brother has been badly injured and that said brother is also in the middle of an emotional shut-down right now, and he's extremely stressed. He's also more likely to snap at things that he normally wouldn't, such as Chaud going off on his own all the time.

Also there's the fact that Chaud did basically use MegaMan as an excuse, so at least a little bit of the anger is justified, even if the rest of it isn't.

This argument here is also gonna be the cause of something else entirely that'll happen in the next chapter.

Oh, by the way, you know that battle suit that Zoet explained in the first half of the chapter?

I've got a drawing of it. There's even an explanation for it in the description. Here, this is what it looks like from my perspective!

/01lqxk014x6q

There you go. I kinda forgot to add in the bit about the slot on the back of the head for anyone with longer hair, but since Zoet and Chaud both have relatively short hair (or at least short enough to not need to bother with the slot), it's not really that relevant.

Anyway, profiles.

/01ndi1falgd8

Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

Flight.

/026mkj34tsh1

And that's the map.

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

It's getting a little bit tiring having to copy these links down every single time, I hope you guys are actually paying attention to them, because there is no way in hell I can actually describe any of these things properly. Virus I'm not too worried about, since it's literally a pale-skinned stick-thin Eldritch Abomination with no face to speak of, but Flight has a lot of details that I just don't have the words to describe.

So yeah anyway, let's end this chapter here.

Read and review!


	10. Chapter 10 - Wet Blanket

I swear to god there's something I was gonna say here, but I completely forgot what it was . . .

Ugh, curse my shitty memory. I'm sure I'll remember it halfway through writing this chapter and then it'll be too late, cus I won't be able to do another AN until I'm done here.

Whatever. Profiles and stuff!

/01ndi1falgd8

Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

Flight.

/026mkj34tsh1

The map.

/01lqxk014x6q

And the battle suit.

Have I mentioned that I based the battle suit's design slightly on MegaMan? You can tell by the gloves and boots mainly, the way there's a thicker bit at the ends.

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

So, time to get into this chapter. Fair warning, Chaud's struggles with Lan and the others aren't over yet, but it'll be fixed at some point. Just not in this chapter.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"I've got a day off tomorrow," Zoet announced, as she and Chaud walked out of the battle suit storage room. They'd just finished changing back into their normal clothes after that day's mission, which had taken all day purely because the client kept sending them to every single district possible.

"So you won't wake me up at ungodly hours," Chaud murmured.

"What's the point? You're shadowing _me_ , idiot, if I have a day off then so do you," Zoet replied with a scoff.

"Right," he said flatly.

Zoet glanced at him, and then stopped walking. Chaud kept going for a couple of steps before he realised she'd stopped, and he turned to face her, confused.

"Alright, spill," Zoet ordered.

"What?"

"You've been moping around like a wet blanket all week," Zoet said bluntly. "At first I thought maybe you were just bored with all these missions, since you're an 'Official' - whatever that means - in your own country. But then I remembered that you'd actually enjoyed the Kitty virus incident, however stupid the circumstances were, so that obviously wasn't the problem. The point is, you've been acting like someone's trodden on your tail and it's still sore. What's wrong with you and why the hell have you not fixed it yet?"

"Would you even care anyway?" Chaud muttered. "You'd probably just call me an idiot and tell me to grow up or something. Besides, it's not like you can help, Lan and the others don't even know you exist - you or the Underground NetBattlers."

"Lan? That Hikari brat?" Zoet asked. Chaud nodded, and she rolled her eyes. "Lemme guess, he called you names and yelled at you, and you're losing your skunk-hair over it."

"Well . . . some of that's true . . ." Chaud admitted. "What's up with the 'skunk-hair' comment, though?"

"You have hair like a skunk. Skunk-boy," Zoet pointed out.

Chaud had gotten so used to people referred to his hair as an egg that he'd never actually considered what else people might call it. He kind of liked skunk better, though he'd never admit that where anyone could hear him. Best keep it to himself, then, otherwise he'd start getting stink jokes from everyone instead of egg jokes.

But that wasn't the problem here.

"So what's wrong?" Zoet went right back to demanding again. "At the very least I'd like to know why my unwanted partner is being a mopey little shit. I liked you better when you were acting like a five-year-old in the middle of a sugar rush, at least then I could impress you, but now you're just . . . meh."

"Thanks," Chaud said flatly. "I'm so glad for the concern."

"Sarcasm is _my_ thing, now spill."

He stared her down for a moment or two, hoping that his silence would discourage her, but Zoet just stared right back and didn't move an inch, not even to blink. With a sigh, he decided to just do as she said - it was easier and a lot less awkward than trying to stare down someone who could probably out-stare a statue.

"Can we not do this where anyone could hear?" he asked, glancing around. There was no one else in the corridor at the moment, but with the amount of people he saw around HQ, there was bound to be someone who would show up at the worst possible moment.

"Fine," Zoet agreed, though she sounded a bit pissed about it. "We'll go to my common room. Move."

She called it her common room because she and her Navis were basically the only people who used it. It seemed that most other operatives had an unspoken agreement to not use that common room as well, so the idea was only reinforced. Good for them because it meant he could talk without having to worry about anyone barging in, aside from Arin, who was probably the only person who could get away with barging in on Zoet's common room.

Just like always, the common room was empty when they got there, and Chaud and Zoet sat at the computer table at the back of the room. They jacked their Navis into the monitor on the wall and Virus, Flight, and ProtoMan appeared on the screen.

Virus, as always, had no face and therefore was difficult to read. Flight looked mildly curious, and ProtoMan just looked extremely worried, like he'd been for the past week following the argument.

"After the Kitty virus thing," Chaud began, "I went back to the hotel me and everyone else are staying at. But when I met up with Lan and everyone else, he - Lan - started yelling at me. They were all mad at me, except for Dr. Hikari and Haruka, and maybe Tory, and they were just yelling at me, saying that I didn't care about MegaMan and demanding an explanation for what I've been doing and . . . and I couldn't explain myself, not without telling them about all this." He waved his hand around the room as he spoke, gesturing to the entire HQ by proxy. "I guess it didn't help that I got angry too, but they weren't exactly being fair - no one gave me a chance to even try to explain myself, and Lan was . . ."

"Unreasonable," ProtoMan put in when he fell silent. "That's the word you're looking for. I'm sure his anger is justified in his own mind, but . . . from our perspective, it was unjust."

"Are you telling me why you're moping or are you trying to psychoanalyse your dumb friend?" Zoet deadpanned.

Chaud ignored her sarcasm. "Haruka broke up the fight - it wasn't much of one, all we were doing was yelling, no one had actually started hitting me yet, but I don't think it would've taken much for a proper fight to break out. And, well, after that . . . we kind of avoided each other, or I avoided everyone else and they ignored me. It's been a week and no one except for Dr. Hikari and Haruka have even spoken to me, not even to say good morning or anything. It . . . kinda makes dinner really awkward."

Zoet glanced at ProtoMan for an explanation.

"Lan and his friends talk among themselves, and if Chaud tries to join in, they either ignore him completely or just glare until he gives up," the red-clad Navi sighed. "Dr. Hikari and Mrs. Hikari will sometimes try to mediate, but it never works."

"I've tried saying sorry," Chaud mumbled, slumping in his chair. "I tried talking to them, I tried sending them emails, leaving notes, everything I could think of. But nothing works. They just ignore me no matter what I do. I . . . I don't know what else to do."

"That's it?"

Chaud went still, and ProtoMan stifled a gasp.

Zoet went on. "I don't see why you're letting this affect you so much," she said. "Doesn't sound like much to me, anyway. Your friends yelled at you, so what? Didn't they yell at you before anyway? What's so different between then and now?"

"Well . . ." Mind whirling in shock, Chaud had to take a few moments to collect his thoughts in order to try and explain it to her. He'd expected a 'do I look like I care' type of reaction from Zoet, but he hadn't expected her to be so savage about it. "It's . . . I like being friends with them. They're the first human friends I've ever had, the first people to actually treat me like a _person_ instead of . . ."

"Instead of . . .?" Zoet prompted, raising an eyebrow. Other than that, her facial expression didn't change at all. Clearly she didn't care one bit and was just asking out of sheer curiousity.

Chaud didn't reply to her prompt directly. "A-and I don't want to lose them over something I can't control," he went on. "If . . . if I could tell them about all this, it might help, but I _can't_ tell them."

"I'm not sure it would help even if you could tell them," ProtoMan pointed out sadly. "It may actually end up fuelling the fire even more."

Chaud nodded in depressed agreement. Things had really spiralled out of his control by now, and he wasn't sure there was anything he could do to fix this. If he'd been who he was before he'd met Lan and the others, maybe he wouldn't have cared as much, but he _wasn't_ and he actually wanted to stay friends with them.

Even if they hated him.

"So, let me get this straight," Zoet said, leaning forward to peer at him. "You've been moping around for an entire week because you got into a bad argument with your friends?"

"Well, it sounds stupid when you say it like that," Chaud muttered.

"Is it stupid. You're stupid. Why are you even letting this affect you?" she asked again. "I decided long ago that I don't give a damn how other people see me, and if they have an issue with it, I'll break their faces."

"Not everyone's the same as you, Zoet," Flight reminded her.

"They bloody should be, then."

"I'm _not_ like you," Chaud protested, drawing her attention. "Maybe I was at some point, but I'm different now, and I don't want to lose my friends over a misunderstanding as dumb as this."

"Right," Zoet said flatly. She stood up and shrugged. "Well, it's not my-"

"-not your problem, yeah, I know," Chaud sighed. He also stood, but kept his gaze fixed on the floor, even as he jacked ProtoMan out of the monitor. "Is anything ever your problem?"

Zoet didn't answer him. After a moment, he sighed again, and started towards the door.

"I'll see you in a couple of days," he muttered as he passed her. He didn't look to see what expression she had.

 **oooo**

The ride to the Haven District gave him a chance to think in relative peace, although he mostly just went over that conversation again and again, wondering whether or not he'd somehow screwed it up. Somehow he felt like he did - maybe walking away like that hadn't been a good idea, but he'd been too drained lately to worry about offending Zoet and getting his bones broken as a result.

ProtoMan had been oddly quiet as well, although typically it was Chaud who talked more than his Navi. But usually after something like this, ProtoMan would be talking his ears off, trying to make Chaud feel better.

" . . . You can say it if you want," Chaud mumbled.

ProtoMan looked up at him from the screen of the PET, which was resting loosely in Chaud's hands. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Looked like he was gonna have to say it then.

"I screwed up," Chaud said. "With MegaMan, with my friends, with Zoet, with _everything_. I am the world's biggest screw-up and it's not even funny anymore."

"It was never funny to start off with," ProtoMan pointed out mildly. "And you are most certainly not a screw-up. You make mistakes, just like anyone else - that's what it is to be human, Chaud. Well, as far as I know, anyway. I'm just a NetNavi, we're perfect in every way possible."

Despite his drained feelings and the anxiety hanging over him like a storm cloud, Chaud couldn't help but smile.

"I swear you never had a sense of humour before," he said, leaning back. ProtoMan always knew what to say and how to distract him. He appreciated that a lot. "But thanks."

"You're welcome," ProtoMan replied. "And try not to worry too much about Lan and the others. It'll get sorted out eventually, somehow. All you can do until then is try."

"And what about Zoet?"

"She's thick-skinned, I'm pretty sure she can take it," ProtoMan dismissed. "Didn't she say that she'd decided not to care how others see her?"

"Deciding not to care and actually putting it into practice are completely different," Chaud reminded him. His tone turned bitter. "Like me 'letting' this affect me."

"That was a little unfair of her to say," ProtoMan admitted, "but she does have a point."

Chaud looked at him, surprised, and ProtoMan shifted uncomfortably.

"Perhaps not in the way Zoet said it," ProtoMan went on. "But you _are_ letting all of this affect you more than it normally would. You've argued with Lan and everyone else in the past, right?"

"Well, yes," Chaud agreed. "But it was never this bad, and it was never over a misunderstanding . . ."

"True," ProtoMan said. "And misunderstandings almost always get cleared up in the end, especially ones like this. It'll be fine, you'll see. Just give it some time. They can't ignore you forever, after all."

"Yeah . . ." Chaud sighed once again, and looked at his Navi with a small smile. "Thank you, ProtoMan. Really. You're my best friend, you know that?"

"I do," ProtoMan replied, actually grinning out of sheer joy. "And you are my best friend."

With his heart feeling lighter than it had been all week, Chaud and ProtoMan shared a comfortable silence throughout the rest of the journey on the tram, and when they got to the Haven District, they discussed what they could do tomorrow. Since it was a day off, they could go basically anywhere, maybe explore some places more thoroughly (since Zoet's whirlwind tour hadn't given him much oppertunity and the missions they'd done since then were only in specific places), or even go to the Bomb Festival and see it properly.

Even though he shied away at the thought of facing that bustling crowd again, Chaud was interested. He wanted to see what a festival looked like for these people, and ProtoMan agreed.

But then his sort-of happy mood evaporated when he got back to the hotel and met Lan and Dr. Hikari outside.

Dr. Hikari gave him a friendly nod, but Lan just ignored him completely.

"How was it today?" Chaud asked them, glancing at Lan.

"We almost had the method finished, but the dummy Navi we were using broke down into data fragments almost as soon as we were near completion," Dr. Hikari said, shaking his head. "We've at least got the first step towards reconstruction finished, though."

"That's great!" Chaud exclaimed. "How many steps do you think you'll need to fix MegaMan?"

"No one's entirely certain yet, but Professor Hestia has estimated about ten," Dr. Hikari replied cheerfully. "That's less than I thought it would be, considering the severity of the damage. Of course, it's just an estimate, so for all we know the number of steps needed for a proper method may be more or less depending on what we need to do."

"However many steps there are, I'm confident you'll figure it out," Chaud assured him.

Dr. Hikari nodded and thanked him, and, with a quick glance at Lan, led the way into the hotel.

"How's MegaMan?" Chaud asked Lan.

No reply.

"Is he still quiet?" Chaud pressed, trying to draw out some sort of reaction. Anything would do, even if it was just Lan telling him to get lost - anything was better than this horrible silence.

But Lan just kept staring straight ahead as if Chaud wasn't even there.

Chaud swallowed his urge to start wailing like a child and got into the lift, keeping Dr. Hikari between himself and Lan. He tried to ignore the concerned glances the scientist was shooting his way, and instead focused on his plans for tomorrow, which suddenly seemed hollow.

 **oooo**

Lan had been ignoring Chaud all week, and he was drowning in guilt because of it.

In the heat of the moment, he'd said everything that was on his mind - or most of it, anyway - and had leaped to conclusions that, when he'd had a chance to think about it, were completely and utterly unreasonable. Most of his anger towards Chaud was, he felt, still justified, but he did regret some of what he'd said. All Lan could think about afterwards was the look on Chaud's face, as if someone had just murdered his best friend right in front of his eyes and then laughed in his face.

But he couldn't apologise.

For one thing, it would be too awkward to apologise now, after he and his friends had been ignoring Chaud for the past week. For another, Lan was simply too stubborn to apologise.

 _That's no excuse!_ He could just imagine MegaMan's scolding. _Chaud's your friend and you're treating him horribly._ He's _tried to reach out, why can't_ you _? And all of this just because you're stressed and you need something to take it out on!_

 _It's not like I can take it back,_ Lan argued. _The damage is done, there's nothing I can do now. He can keep saying sorry all he wants, but it still doesn't change the fact that he's still going off on his own, or that he used my brother as an excuse._

The imaginary MegaMan didn't respond, and Lan sighed.

He rolled over onto his side, looking at the stand beside the bed in his hotel room. His PET was resting there, and he'd shut it down to give MegaMan a chance to recharge, not that he actually needed it. Even after over two weeks, he hadn't moved or said a word since finding out he couldn't walk anymore.

 _But we're going to fix that,_ Lan thought. Chaud could do whatever he liked, MegaMan was the one with the real problem here.

Yet the sour feeling of guilt still churned his stomach.

Just yesterday, Chaud had tried - again - to ask how MegaMan was doing after Lan and Dad had gotten back from the Navi Research Labs. Lan had completely ignored him, and even though a few days ago he would have been heartlessly pleased when Chaud had given up, he'd only felt dirty and horrible and wretched.

This was stupid. Lan had MegaMan to worry about, he couldn't worry about Chaud as well.

He muttered to himself in frustration, and slid off the bed. Maybe a walk would do him some good. He glanced at his PET but decided to leave it there - no point in waking MegaMan up for a simple walk, after all - and went over to the door and opened it.

Only to close it when he spotted Chaud coming out of his own room opposite Lan's.

After a moment, Lan dared to open the door again - just a crack, enough to see through but not enough for anyone to notice that the door was open - and watched Chaud lock his own door with one hand, the other holding onto his PET.

"I don't get it," Chaud muttered, loud enough for Lan to hear - he was talking to ProtoMan, but was trying to be quiet about it. Sneaking off again, maybe? "Zoet said we had a day off today. So why send an email all of a sudden?"

 _Zoet?_ Lan wondered. That didn't even sound like a _word_ , nevermind a name.

"Maybe something came up," ProtoMan suggested.

"You don't seriously think Zoet, of _all_ people, would ask _me_ for help?"

ProtoMan was silent for a moment.

"Alright, maybe not," he admitted eventually.

"Well, don't be so quick to agree with me," Chaud muttered as he walked off in the direction of the lift.

Lan made a split-second decision, and darted after him. He couldn't go down the same lift, and he didn't want to risk using another one in case he got there before Chaud or at the exact same time, but the stairs were still an option - provided Lan was willing to cheat.

He slid down the banister of the stairs, startling a cleaner making his way up, and was at the bottom floor in record time. He opened the door a little, checking whether Chaud had made it down yet, and ducked back just as Chaud passed by the door.

Lan opened the door again and spied a good hiding spot just a few feet away, a large box that could have been a bin but probably wasn't since it didn't have any visible openings. Some sort of table, then? Well, whatever it was, he snuck over to it and peered around it, searching for Chaud until he found him.

There he was, standing in front of a messy-haired boy wearing a dark red sleeveless hoodie and strange wireless headphones around his neck.

"I thought you said we had a day off today," Chaud said. Luckily the box thing was close enough that Lan could hear what they were saying without having to creep closer.

"We do," the boy with the headphones said. "But I came here to give you this."

Up until that moment, Lan hadn't noticed that the boy had one hand hidden behind his back. As he watched, the boy pulled his hand out, and revealed a weird stick-thing with a really long ribbon attached to it. The ribbon was a bright red, almost the same colour as ProtoMan.

Chaud looked at the ribbon suspiciously, and then glanced at the boy.

"What's this?" he asked warily.

The boy rolled his eyes. "It's a peace offering, you idiot," he said sharply, though it was easy to tell he was restraining himself from using a more hurtful tone.

Lan expected Chaud to snap at the boy for calling him an idiot, but to his surprise that wasn't what happened. Just who was this person, who could apparently get away with insulting Chaud so casually?

"Why?" Chaud asked.

The boy pursed his lips briefly, and then sighed irritably. "Look, about yesterday . . . Flight and Virus told me off for it. They said I was the one being an idiot, a selfish idiot at that, and they made me think about it, and I decided that they're right and I was being very, very disrespectful."

"You're always disrespectful," Chaud pointed out.

"True," the boy admitted. "But that was a different kind of disrespect. It was just mean. So I got you this as a peace offering, because I will be the first to admit that I suck at apologies."

"Um, alright," Chaud said slowly, taking the ribbon-on-a-stick and playing with the ribbon part absentmindedly. "But why a ribbon streamer?"

Oh, so that was what it was called. That was good to know.

"You wouldn't stop looking at the damn things when we were on patrol in the Gate District the other day," the boy said bluntly. "You're a soppy little shit who apparently loves ribbon streamers for some ungodly reason, so there you go."

"I'm not soppy," Chaud protested, though he didn't sound too offended. That was strange, normally anyone who insulted him was liable to get their faces punched or something.

Just who _was_ this boy?

"As for why I emailed you," the boy went on, "I decided it was better than breaking into your room like always."

 _Wait, what?_ Lan almost said the words out loud from shock.

"You emailed me and gave me a ribbon streamer as a peace offering just to apologise?" Chaud wondered.

" . . . Not exactly."

"So there _is_ something else," Chaud said.

The boy shook his head. "Not in the way you're thinking. We do have a day off today, so no missions - not from the board or from Kris - but I figured I may as well try making up for yesterday in a better way than just giving you a crappy little ribbon thing."

Missions? So that meant Chaud _was_ here on Official business. The knowledge made Lan's guilt even worse than before, even though he'd been angry about it.

"We're going to the festival," the boy announced.

Chaud straightened up in surprise. "Really? You actually _want_ to go there?" he asked. "I thought you didn't care for the crowds."

"I don't, I hate them," the boy agreed. "But if that's what it'll take for you to start feeling better, well, fine. I can't have you moping around like a wet blanket for the entire time you're here. And . . ."

"And?" Chaud prompted.

The boy looked faintly embarrassed, and incredibly annoyed. "And I realised that I actually do care what's wrong with you, even if I said otherwise," he muttered. "I consider you . . . a _friend_." He dragged the word out like it was a curse or something, but for some reason, it made Chaud smile.

Lan hadn't seen him smile all week. He'd just looked utterly miserable.

"Arin was right," he said. "You really _do_ care more than you let on."

The boy reacted as though Chaud had just said something unforgivable. "I most certainly do not!" he snapped.

Chaud just laughed, surprising Lan even further. "Yes you do!" he gleefully declared. "You act all tough and rude, but underneath it all, you're just a really big softie, huh?"

"Take that back or I'll claw your eyes out," the boy barked.

"No you won't," Chaud retorted, still laughing.

The boy sighed heavily, and looked up at the ceiling like he was asking a higher power for help. "Having feelings is ruining my reputation of being a heartless bitch," he complained.

"If you were ever heartless to start off with," Chaud pointed out, and the boy glared at him.

"Whatever. Are you ready to go now or do you need some time to get ready?" the boy demanded.

Chaud held up his ribbon streamer. "I'm fine to go now, just let me put this-"

But the boy shook his head. "Don't bother," he said. "Take it with you, there should be a workshop at the festival that teaches you how to use the thing. You do wanna learn how to use a ribbon streamer, right?"

"I admit the thought had crossed my mind more than once," Chaud said, with no trace of sarcasm at all.

"Good, then let's get moving. And, also . . ." The boy hesitated for a split second, and then continued speaking. "The thing about Lan and your friends. It really isn't my problem, but if you ever need any help - with anything, not just them - all you gotta do is ask. I can't guarantee I'll be happy about it, or that I'll actually help, but I'm offering."

Chaud's smile was softer this time. "Thank you, Zoet," he said. "That's all I can ask of you, I guess."

"Yeah, well-" The boy broke off abruptly, and then continued in a less hostile tone. "I'll try to help you. Can't have my partner being a wet blanket after all."

"You don't need to try so hard for me," Chaud told him, as they started out of the front doors of the hotel lobby.

"Screw you, brat, I don't do anything half-assed and I sure as hell am not about to . . ."

Lan didn't hear the rest of what the boy - what Zoet - said, because the doors closed behind them and suddenly they were gone.

Without ever knowing that their entire conversation had been overheard by the very person who had probably caused all of this. And he most definitely was the cause, since apparently Chaud had spent a lot of time in this 'Zoet's' company, long enough that he'd noticed a change in Chaud's behaviour, and Chaud had told him everything.

This knowledge wasn't helping the pit in his stomach get any less deeper. It was just making it worse.

 _Dammit, Chaud,_ Lan cursed the dual-haired boy. _What is it with you and making everything so insanely difficult?_

He couldn't even hate Chaud without feeling guilty anymore.

 **OOOOOO**

So yeah, Chaud's not the only one who's feeling despondent over the argument from the previous chapter. And we also get to see a bit of Zoet's heartless side, and then her more heartful side, because yeah, as Chaud and Arin said, she does care more than she lets on.

Little bit of trivia about her - if she considers you a friend, she'll be the most clingy motherfucker ever. Not literally clingy, but clingy in a 'you hurt my friend I murder you' kind of way. The only reason she hasn't gone after Lan and the others yet is because of the secrecy thing, and also because Chaud still considers them to be his friends even if they currently hate his guts.

Yeah, Chaud's a bit OOC at this point, but I'm only writing him how I need him to be for the purposes of this story. He's still more or less the same, just more chill because we've got Zoet handling the whole 'I am the queen of rudeness' thing, and Lan is just weird at the moment, so there we go.

We also get some brotherly ProtoMan - who I kinda see as a big brother for Chaud, mainly because of the anime. I love those kind of relationships, they're always adorable as hell.

And just in case anyone wants to start shipping them, Zoet is NOT a love interest for Chaud.

This is purely friendship, because females and males can actually be friends, and I don't care much for shipping my own OCs with canon characters, even if they happen to be my favourites.

Speaking of favourites, you know how a few chapters ago I said MegaMan was my favourite? Well, now it's Chaud. MegaMan is officially my second-favourite _Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ character, and Chaud is number one, because for some reason I seem to have a thing for assholes with tragic pasts.

Plus his hair is like . . . it's awesome, man. He's either a literal egghead or a skunk, and I think that's wonderful. Plus I love white hair.

So naturally, with him now officially being my favourite, he's also gonna be prone to various torture plots. Fortunately for him the plot of this story has already been laid out and, while this little sub-plot here is extremely hurtful for him, there's not really much to break his twelve-year-old-ass.

I'm also still unsure of how old Lan, Chaud, and everyone else are supposed to be, which was the main reason why I was leaving the timeframe of this story vague, but I've read somewhere that Chaud is twelve, so that's what I'm going with. That also means he's three years younger than Zoet, actually, so she's still justified in calling him a brat.

Anyway, profiles.

/01ndi1falgd8

Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

Flight.

/026mkj34tsh1

The map.

/01lqxk014x6q

And the battle suit.

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

I did consider solving this sub-plot of Lan and the others hating Chaud in the next chapter, but since we've already had Zoet going 'surprise, I actually give a shit', I decided not to bother.

So instead I'm gonna write Chaud and Zoet doing a random mission. It's one that I've been planning on writing at some point anyway, but I wasn't sure where I could stick it, and I decided to put it there.

Naturally this means that next chapter will end up being an all-Chaud chapter, bar a POV switch to ProtoMan if necessary or whatever.

Read and review!


	11. Chapter 11 - My Daughter Is Missing

As promised, an entire chapter of Chaud, Zoet, and their Navis, going through a mission from the Underground NetBattlers. I'm launching straight into the mission right from the start of this chapter, because I can't be bothered to write a brief scene of Zoet choosing the mission (we already know how it works anyway, and Chaud's not likely to refuse when he can't read what other missions are available since Zoet could easily choose something else he doesn't like) or the two of them changing into their battle suits.

Rest assured it all happened, and it was suitably funny, so there we go.

Profiles!

/01ndi1falgd8

Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

Flight.

/026mkj34tsh1

The map.

/01lqxk014x6q

And the battle suit.

I wrote an easy thing for it all last chapter, so I can just copy-and-paste it all without having to write everything out over and over again. I hope you guys are actually paying attention to them.

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Their latest mission was titled 'My Daughter Is Missing', and it had been posted by a worried father who thought that going to the police would bring too much attention.

"Thank you for coming so soon," he gushed, shaking Chaud's hand enthusiastically. When he went to shake Zoet's hand, she backed away a little, and he looked a little confused but didn't question it. "You Shades are always so busy, I was afraid you wouldn't come, but you did . . . Oh, thank you, thank you!"

They were wearing their battle suits. Chaud, despite looking through a black visor, could see clearly as if he wasn't even wearing it - a result of having ProtoMan downloaded into the suit, Zoet had explained. The Navis could control everything about it if they had to, from vision to air con, and the visors could also act as glasses for those who needed them.

The battle suits were very convenient.

"I wasn't even sure the email would get through," the man admitted as he led them into his house - a solid but small place near the edge of the Jungle District. "I mean, people say that the Shades will come if you know how to contact them, but that email address is . . . pardon the expression, it's a little shady."

"It has to be," Zoet pointed out. To Chaud's ears, her voice sounded exactly the same, but to anyone not wearing a battle suit connected to her communications system, her voice would have been altered. Chaud's voice as well. The battle suit disguise wouldn't do much good if people could recognise them by their voices, after all.

"Yes, I know," the man agreed. "I was just . . . Ah, here we go. This is my daughter."

He picked up a picture from the fireplace, of a man and a young girl standing side-by-side with their arms around each other and grins stretching across their faces. The man was their current client, and the young girl was obviously his daughter. The man handed it to Chaud so he could examine it.

"Seven years old," ProtoMan said in Chaud's ear, listing her description and storing it in the suit's memory for future reference. "Short blonde hair. Brown eyes. Pale skin."

"What was she wearing the last time you saw her?" Zoet asked the man.

ProtoMan went quiet as the man replied.

"Her favourite dress - it's such a pretty thing, green and frilly, she loves it so much," he sighed, and took the picture back from Chaud, placing it back onto the fireplace.

"Anything else that may help us to identify her?" Chaud spoke up.

"A green bow in her hair," the man said. "And green shoes. That . . . that's her favourite colour, green. She asked me to paint her entire room green, even asked for a green carpet."

"We'll find her," Zoet promised the man. "On our honour as Shades, we promise."

"We promise," Chaud echoed. That was sort of the 'begin mission' phrase, and so far Chaud had yet to say the full phrase for himself. Zoet had promised he could say it next time, if only because he was still trying to figure out when exactly he was meant to say it. She said it differed from operative to operative, but she preferred to say it after she'd met the client and gotten as much information about the mission as possible from them.

They let themselves out, leaving the man in the house to look at the picture of himself and his daughter forlornly, and made their way down the street. As they walked, they got a few looks from various passersby, but only quick looks. It seemed that Shades were respected enough by everyone that they could walk around the various districts without being questioned.

"The girl was last seen in the eastern sector of this district," Zoet said. Her voice seemed to come right from inside his own head, so Chaud guessed she was using private communications so there was no danger of anyone overhearing them.

He switched to private communications as well. "I have a question," he began. Zoet turned her head towards him, but he couldn't see her expression through her visor. "Why is a missing-person case listed as a regular mission? I thought this type of thing would be a mission given out by Kris or whoever."

"If it was something like a kidnapping, it would have been," Zoet replied. "But since we have no evidence that the kid's been kidnapped - not yet, anyway - it's being treated as a simple missing-person case, and therefore it's not so serious that it needs to be assigned to a specific operative. If it turns out that she was kidnapped, then we'll deal with it accordingly, but otherwise we're continuing on with the assumption that she's simply wandered off and gotten lost. She's only been missing for a few hours, don't forget."

Chaud nodded. The information about the mission that Zoet had on her PET was fairly specific - a plea for help in finding the man's missing daughter, who he hadn't noticed had vanished until well after it had happened. He'd last seen her in the eastern sector of the Jungle District, but she was too young to have learnt how to get home on her own, and this district was the second-largest in all of Nowhere. Details would be explained upon meeting the client, which he had done, and now Chaud and Zoet were heading towards the eastern sector to find some clues as to where she could be.

He was still a little puzzled as to why the man hadn't gone to the police and had instead decided to ask the Shades - the Underground NetBattlers - for help, but Zoet had said that it wasn't their place to question people's motives in choosing them rather than any other organisation. Their only concern was completing the mission, whatever it may be.

"Chaud," ProtoMan spoke up. "I've created a digital image of what the girl should look like, based on that picture and the client's description of her."

"Show us," Zoet ordered, having also heard him.

An image appeared on the visor's HUD, of the same little girl in the picture wearing the clothing that the man had described. Or at least what ProtoMan assumed the clothing looked like. It would be good enough to show people, however.

"Right then," Zoet said, "we'll split up when we reach the eastern sector. Show the picture to as many people as possible, ask if they've seen her and if they have, where, and then go to those places and see what you can find. She may not have been kidnapped, but she's still a little kid, so we need to find her as quickly as possible."

"Got it," Chaud and the three Navis replied. Well, Virus said 'understood', but same difference.

 **oooo**

He'd shown the digital image to everyone he could stop - which turned out to be almost everyone, apparently people would listen to a Shade even if they were kid-sized - by using the holographic image program installed into the jack-in gem. It was pretty useful for these kind of things, and Chaud once again felt a little bit disappointed when he remembered that he wouldn't get to keep the battle suit after his time with the Underground NetBattlers was over.

Despite having shown the image to several people, no one he asked seemed to have any information about the little girl. One or two had actually seen her, but she'd been with her father at the time, which wasn't much help at all.

"How much luck do you think Zoet's had?" Chaud wondered as he turned away from yet another person who knew nothing about the girl.

"I'm not sure," ProtoMan replied. "Why don't you finish this street and then I'll contact her? If she's got any info, we could meet up and keep going from there."

Chaud nodded and made his way over to a couple walking their dog, dodging around a passing car. The Jungle District's streets were like forest paths, the dirt tracks being the roads, and he could certainly see why Zoet was so concerned about the kid being in danger even if she hadn't been kidnapped. It would be easy for her to accidentally wander into the road and get hit by a car or something.

When he showed the couple with the dog the image ProtoMan had created, they said they'd seen her - not even half an hour ago.

"She was a few streets over," the woman said, pointing in the general direction. "There was a man with her, I think it was probably her father."

Chaud's interested piqued. The girl's father had been at home, worrying, but perhaps he'd decided to come out himself and had managed to find her after all.

"Did he look like this?" he asked, showing them a digital picture of the girl's father just to be certain.

To his horror the woman shook her head.

"No, he was cleaner," she said. "He didn't have stubble, but his hair was longer and tied back. Was . . . was that not her father, then?"

"I need you to tell me exactly what he looked like," Chaud demanded instead. "Everything you can remember about this man - even small details will do."

"Is this kid in trouble?" the man spoke up for the first time. He looked very concerned.

"It may end up being nothing," Chaud replied, not wanting to cause a panic, "but I need to know all the same. Please."

The couple exchanged a glance, and nodded. Chaud suspected it was more their respect for the Shades than anything else that made them actually answer his demands, but either way, by the time he was hurrying away from them, ProtoMan had built up a clear image of what this mystery man may look like.

"Send it to Zoet and tell her to meet me at . . . what street is this?" Chaud asked, searching for a sign that would tell him where he was. He found one and scowled at the unfamiliar letters. "Dammit, I need to figure out how to read Savaron."

"You have me to translate," ProtoMan reminded him. He brought up a window on the visor's HUD, which scanned the sign and translated it to Electopian within moments.

Serenity Street, the sign read. It certainly didn't _feel_ serene, not after what Chaud had just learnt.

"Thanks," Chaud said gratefully. "Right, send that image to Zoet and tell her to meet me here. Where is she, anyway?"

ProtoMan didn't reply for a moment, too busy sending the message to Zoet.

"She's just a few streets away," he reported after a pause. "Flight says she's coming over as fast as she can."

Chaud nodded in acknowledgement and went to the end of the street to wait. There were three other streets here, making this a sort of cross-shaped intersection, and the street that the couple had indicated was over in the right direction.

He only had to wait for a few minutes before he noticed a dark shape practically gliding across the rooftops to his left. Chaud turned to face the dark shape as it jumped off the last building, grabbed hold of a vine hanging off a branch walkway overhead, and then swung down onto the ground with an impressive backflip, startling several people as it landed in a crouch right in front of Chaud.

"So I guess this turned out to be a kidnapping case after all," Zoet greeted him, standing up.

" . . . How did you-" Chaud began.

"Oi, idiot, this is my home district," she reminded him. "And how do you think I can break into your room so easily? Now are we gonna stand here discussing my amazing acrobatic abilities or are we gonna go and rescue the little kid?"

"Rescue the little kid," he replied.

"Good. Where did those guys see her?"

"Five streets over, to the right," ProtoMan informed her. "But it was half an hour ago, so it's unlikely that the girl and the mystery man are still there."

"We're going anyway," Zoet decided. "She may not be there anymore, but we can still find out where she went and if anyone else saw her."

"And since it was so recent," Chaud pointed out, "there's bound to be more people who've seen her."

Zoet agreed to that with a nod, and took the lead to the street ProtoMan had indicated. This street was called Bough Avenue, and the road was lined with small trees (small in comparison to the walkway trees) that Zoet said were actually real.

They asked around and showed the picture to everyone they could, and Chaud turned out to be right - a lot of people had seen her, and when asked, they all confirmed that they'd seen her with the mystery man, who had been leading her somewhere. No one seemed to know exactly where, and Zoet and Chaud were ready to head off in the general direction, when they asked a man who seemed to know the sector better than anyone else.

"I think I know where they were headed," he mused, frowning. "There's an old block of empty houses that're scheduled for demolition next month, and that's the direction they were going. I should know, I'm a building supervisor, after all."

"Thank you for your help," Chaud replied. "Where exactly is this block of houses?"

Their Navis recorded the directions the man gave them, and then provided them with a fully-detailed map that they could use to get there. It took a little over ten minutes to find their way to the block of houses, which, when they arrived, seemed more oppressive and hollow than anywhere else in the district.

Chaud wasn't sure if it was because the place was empty, or because a potential kidnapper could be waiting for them inside one of those houses.

The biggest of them was right in the middle, looking more like a small warehouse than an actual house. No one wanted to make any assumptions, so they decided to check the smaller houses first, in case the mystery man had gone into one of those with the little girl - and in case neither of them were there to start off with. For all they knew, they could have just passed by this place and they were wasting their time searching it.

At a nod from Zoet, they split up once again and started at the houses at the very end of the block.

When he got to the first house, Chaud hesitated, and then tested the front door. It didn't open.

" . . . What were you trying to do?" ProtoMan asked him.

"Just trying to see if the door was unlocked," he replied. "It'd be easier if it was, but no, of course not . . ."

"They are scheduled for demolition," ProtoMan pointed out.

"Doesn't hurt to try," Chaud said. He shrugged, and raised his fist up to the electronic lock on the door. "Alright, jack in, Pr- Red Shade!"

The jack-in gem on the back of his hand flashed and a beam of red light shot out of it and connected to the lock. A moment later, a window materialised on one side of his HUD, showing the network of the electronic lock - and ProtoMan himself, standing at the very start, wrapped in the cloak of red-tinted shadows from the Shade program.

"I'm in," ProtoMan reported.

"Unlock the door and then find a way into the house's network, if it has one," Chaud told him. "And be on the lookout for viruses. We only know a few Savaron ones so far, and if we come across one we don't know, we may end up having to abandon ship."

"Understood," ProtoMan agreed, and he started moving through the network.

Luckily the only viruses that showed up were a few packs of Kitty viruses and Mettaurs (it seemed the Mettaur viruses were the one single virus that every country shared), so ProtoMan had little to no trouble opening the lock on the front door.

As his Navi moved deeper into the house's network, Chaud went inside the house and began searching as silently as possible. He kept an eye on ProtoMan's screen but mostly concentrated on his own surroundings, but by the time he'd finished crawling through the entire house, he'd found nothing that would suggest anyone being here, recently or otherwise.

He recalled ProtoMan and moved on to the next house.

The next couple of houses went more or less the same, but the third contained a virus that Chaud and ProtoMan had yet to encounter - it was some sort of giant black cat with blank white eyes, although it looked more like an ink monster the way it was dripping black goo everywhere. It didn't seem to notice ProtoMan when he snuck past it, nor did it react when he took a picture of it to show Zoet later, and they managed to get through the house in the real world and cyberworld without disturbing it.

"They seem to like cat viruses here," ProtoMan commented as Chaud moved on to the fifth house in his row.

"We've come across like four so far, including that one - if there's any more, I'd say they have an unhealthy obsession," Chaud agreed.

"Screw both of you," Zoet's voice snapped over private communications, surprising them.

"That was an Inky by the way," Flight added. "They're normally pretty chill, and don't attack you unless you disturb their nest."

"An Inky's nest is typically a large section of a network, covered almost entirely in black ink and infested with Inklings, which are smaller and less powerful versions of the Inky," Virus explained. "The Inky you saw in that house most likely only began to create its nest a short while ago, otherwise you would have encountered Inklings in the network. The Inklings are somewhat like the Kitty virus in that they attack in packs, but do not take this to mean that they are just inky versions of the Kitty virus. If the ink they drip gets on your body, your hit points will begin to decay slowly - you can fix that by jacking out."

"Would these Inklings alert the Inky to our presence?" ProtoMan asked it.

"They would not," Virus replied, to Chaud's relief. "The Inky itself does not leave its nest unless it is chasing a trespasser. If, for whatever reason, you set foot in an Inky's nest, it will not stop hunting you until you leave the network. It is very dangerous and only very skilled and powerful NetNavis are able to delete them."

" _We're_ skilled and powerful," Chaud retorted. "I'm pretty sure ProtoMan and I could take one down."

"The Inky requires a different level of skilled and powerful, I am afraid," Virus shot him down. "It will take more than fancy sword arts to delete one. Only Navis such as those who work with the leaders are able to take the Inkys on with confidence. If you come across an Inky's nest, do not attempt to engage."

"What about the Inklings?" Chaud wondered. And they'd come across one of those Inky things just now . . . He shuddered to think what it could have done to ProtoMan.

"Virus said they're not inky versions of the Kitty virus," Zoet spoke up, "but to be honest, they actually kind of _are_. They're pretty easy to delete, but if they surround you, good luck fighting your way out of dripping black acid."

"Ouch," Chaud muttered.

 **oooo**

Zoet and Chaud finished the smaller houses at about the same time, and met up outside the largest one.

"Jack in, Vital Shade," Zoet said, pointing her right jack-in gem at the door's lock.

In less time that it had taken ProtoMan, the door was open and they pushed their way inside. They were standing in a short hallway, more like a foyer than anything else, with three doors - two on either side and one at the very end. The walls had holes in them and stains over what remained of the wallpaper, and the carpet was just as bad, if not worse.

"Okay, ew," Zoet muttered in digust. "This place is even dirtier than the others. Who the hell even lived here, rats?"

Avoiding the worst of the stains on the carpet, they moved forward until they came to the first two doors. Zoet took the left and Chaud took the right, but when their Navis opened the locks for them and they looked inside, they didn't find anything - Zoet's door led to nothing more than a small cupboard, while Chaud's just led to an empty room.

"What's behind door number three?" Flight asked, emulating the tone of a gameshow host.

"Shut up," Zoet said, unamused.

The last door led to a second empty room - except this one contained two more doors, one directly opposite them and the other to their right. Zoet quickly checked the one opposite and found nothing but a misused kitchen (something had apparently died in there, because the smell it let out when Zoet opened the door . . . Ugh. Even with his helmet on, Chaud gagged at the stench). The second door could've opened up into the empty room that Chaud had seen from the foyer, but that room hadn't had any other exits or entrances, and when they opened the door, they instead found a staircase.

It looked like it had seen better days. A couple of the steps seemed to be rotting away entirely, and Chaud didn't exactly feel like finding out what would happen if he stepped on them. There was also a large spider web hanging across the ceiling, but to his relief he didn't see the spider that had made it.

Even so, he kept an eye on the web as he took the lead up the stairs, being careful to avoid the two that were rotting.

At the top of the stairs was a small landing with a single door.

"It's been used recently, and a lot," Zoet commented.

Chaud almost asked how she knew that, but then he examined the door handle. It looked a lot cleaner than almost everything in the house, as if someone had used it but didn't want to raise suspicioun that anyone was here. A quick scan of the handle showed him that it had in fact been used recently, as recently as today in fact.

"Maybe we should have scanned the floor for footprints," Chaud said.

"Eh, too late now, let's go find out who's here," Zoet replied with a careless shrug.

She shoved the door open and went inside, and with a mental sigh, Chaud followed.

They were in another hallway, except there were more doors here than there had been in the foyer. There was also a dirty window where the front door would have been.

And here, it turned out there was no need to scan the floor for footprints - they could see them easily even without any extra help from the visor's HUDs. Whoever was here, they'd been using this upstairs hallway quite a lot, and hadn't bothered to cover their tracks. The likely conclusion to that was that they hadn't assumed anyone would come past the foyer or go anywhere near the stairs after determining that the house was empty, at least on the ground floor.

Silently, they began checking each of the doors once more, making their way down the hallway to the end. Most of the rooms were empty, and there were more on Chaud's side than on Zoet's, so by the time he was halfway down his side, Zoet was at the last door on hers.

As she was just finishing checking the room inside, Chaud noticed the door at the very end of the hallway was opening.

He didn't have enough time to warn Zoet before a tall man with long hair tied back stepped out and, with lightning speed, shot forward and grabbed Zoet's upper arm. He spun her around and held her against his chest, giving Chaud a triumphant smirk.

"Didn't think I'd get Shades coming after me," the ponytail man sneered. "But if you come near me, this one here gets hurt. Got it?"

He gave Zoet's arm a rough shake to emphasise his threat, and it was at that point that Chaud noticed that Zoet had gone very, very still.

Was . . . was she actually _scared_?

"I think a Shade ought to fetch a better price than a little kid," the ponytail man mused. "So how about this? You do exactly as I say, and I'll-"

Zoet stomped on his foot and the moment he let go of her with a yell, she whirled around and punched him in the throat. He choked, hand going to his throat, but before he could even complete his movement Zoet flashed up a kick that sent him sprawling into the wall. He bounced off it and coughed feebly, and then seemed to recover slightly as he looked up and glared at Zoet.

Who, as it turned out, did not give a single shit and just kicked him right between the legs.

He went down with a loud squeak.

Guess she wasn't scared, then. Just extremely pissed off.

Without a word and without even looking away from the ponytail man, Zoet raised her hand to point at Chaud, and then at the door that the man had come through.

He didn't want to get beaten up like that, so he just nodded and hurried past them. He only relaxed once he was through the door.

"I think she's dragging him across the floor," ProtoMan commented.

Chaud didn't look back to check. He didn't want to know what pain Zoet was going to inflict on the guy now.

The room he was in now was relatively small in comparison to the others that he'd seen so far, and unlike most of them, actually wasn't empty. There was furniture in here, what looked like the remains of tables and one or two small cupboards. It was also dark in here, not just because the window was dirty, but because there was an old and tattered blind drawn over it - though, despite being old and tattered, it did a good job of keeping the room in relative darkness.

"Activate night-vision," Chaud quietly told ProtoMan.

Once he could actually see, he did a quick visual sweep of the room, and at first his gaze went over the shape huddled in the further corner of the room. After a moment he realised what he'd seen, and then his eyes snapped back to the shape.

The little girl who had been missing for the past few hours stared at him with wide, scared eyes, and tried to huddle closer to the wall when Chaud looked directly at her.

He de-activated private communications and spoke to her, for the first time cursing the blank helmet. He was probably scaring her even more.

"Hey," Chaud said gently. She still squeaked in terror. "It's okay, I'm here to help you. That man - is he the guy who took you in here?"

He thought she was too terrified to reply, but she nodded slowly.

"Alright, well, my friend is . . ." Beating him senseless. " . . . taking care of him, so there's nothing to be scared of anymore. Do you know what I am?"

"You . . . you're a Shade," the little girl whispered. "D-Daddy says you're nice people."

"That's right, we are," Chaud nodded. He didn't think mentioning Zoet would do much good here. "Your dad sent us a message and asked us to come and find you. He's waiting for you."

"He- he is?" the little girl asked. She didn't look as terrified now, and even shuffled away from the wall a little. "C-can you take me home, please?"

"Of course," Chaud agreed. "Do you want to go now?" He really, really hoped that Zoet had finished beating the guy up by now.

"Y-yeah," the little girl replied.

 **oooo**

Zoet and the ponytail man weren't in the hallway when he led the little girl out of the room, and he couldn't find either of them in the house. But when he got outside, he saw that Zoet had, for whatever reason, called the police.

The ponytail man was being hauled into an ambulance - just how badly had Zoet beaten him up, seriously? - and Zoet was talking to a police officer nearby, while others investigated the other empty houses. He quietly told the little girl to wait for him, and then went over to Zoet and the officer she was talking to.

" . . . cracked ribs, two _broken_ ribs, a dislocated jaw, a broken arm, a dislocated shoulder, all fingers on the right hand sprained, a bruised ankle, right knee shattered, left leg broken in three places, glass shards buried in almost every inch of skin, not to mention all the bruises and cuts . . . What happened to him?" the police officer asked, looking vaguely horrified.

"He fell out of the window," Zoet replied flatly.

Chaud, curious, glanced over his shoulder at the window on the second floor above the door. It was indeed broken and there were glass shards all over the ground below it, as if something had been thrown through it.

" . . . And how many times did he fall out of the window?" the police officer asked.

"Dunno. I lost count."

The officer stared at her blankly for a few moments, and then he sighed. "You Shades are insane, you know that?" he said. "But thank you for the help, all the same. We've been after this man for quite some time, and he'll be able to lead us to whatever sick buyers he has, not to mention the rest of the traffickers."

"No problem," Zoet replied. The police officer nodded and went off, and Zoet turned to Chaud. "The girl alright?"

"Uh, yeah," Chaud answered. "Scared, but yeah. She wasn't hurt or anything. I, uh."

"What?"

"Why did you beat him up like that?" Chaud blurted out, and then immediately regretted it as Zoet tilted her head ever-so-slightly. The blank visor of the helmet wasn't really helping the terrifying image.

"I don't like being touched," Zoet eventually said.

Now he recalled how she'd backed away when the little girl's father had gone to shake her hand. He hadn't been too curious about it before, but this at least explained why.

Although it was kind of an extreme reaction to being touched, even if the ponytail man had tried to hold her hostage. Sure, it wouldn't have worked either way, but doing all of that damage to him was a little bit . . . excessive.

"Let's get the kid back home," Zoet said. "If she's too tired or scared to walk back on her own two feet, you can carry her."

"That'd probably be for the best," Chaud agreed.

He didn't think Zoet would beat up a little girl, but this was Zoet he was talking about. He couldn't assume anything when it came to her - the fact that she'd shown up to actually apologise and had even given him a ribbon streamer as a peace offering was probably the biggest reason why. Just add this to list of things that confused him about Zoet. It was gonna be a very long list and he had a feeling it would never stop growing.

 **oooo**

As soon as he saw them through the window, the little girl's father rushed out of his house and swept her into his arms, letting out a cry of pure relief. The little girl burst into tears and and clung to him, and Zoet and Chaud stepped back to give them a few moments.

"Thank you so much," the girl's father said emotionally, when he looked up. His eyes were shining and he seemed unable to stop smiling. "You . . . thank you. I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am, just . . . thank you."

"You hired us to find your kid, and we did," Zoet replied, shrugging.

Chaud nodded in agreement. "We're just doing our job," he added, "no thanks needed."

"Even so . . ." The little girl's father trailed off, glanced at his daughter, and then stood up and took her hand. "Wait out here for a moment, would you?"

Puzzled, Zoet and Chaud did as he asked, while he led his daughter inside the house. After waiting for a minute or two, the man came back out, and he held out his hand to them.

"It's not much, I know, but this is my way of expressing my gratitude," the little girl's father said. "Take them, I don't have any use for virus chips anyway."

Virus chips? Chaud's interested grew, and he took the chips from the man, and looked at them. There were four, and all of them seemed to be some variation of the Kitty virus. He gave them to Zoet, who put them in one of her battle chip packs.

They thanked the man and made their way to the tram station, getting a ticket to the Historical District. As Shades, they didn't need to pay or even use passes, all they had to do was ask for a ticket to whatever district they needed to go to. That, in Chaud's opinion, was probably one of the strangest but most useful benefits of having the battle suit. He was considering telling the higher-ups in the Electopian NetBattler society about all of this, but then decided not to because the Underground NetBattlers probably wouldn't appreciate their ideas being stolen.

"Here," Zoet said, nudging his shoulder. She handed him two of the Kitty virus chips that they'd just gotten. "Have some fun with that. Kitty virus chips are great to use, trust me."

"I probably won't use them, but thanks anyway," Chaud replied, putting the virus chips away.

He did wonder briefly why she'd touched him if she didn't like being touched - but then again, being touched by other people and touching other people yourself were two entirely different things, weren't they? It made sense, even if it was a little bit backwards.

"Don't like virus chips?" Zoet asked as she settled back into her seat on the tram.

"More like I prefer to use normal battle chips," Chaud explained. "I think I only ever used a virus chip once in my entire life . . . ProtoMan?"

"I think it was a Spikey virus," his Navi agreed. "And even if we don't use these chips ourselves, I'm sure SciLab will appreciate them - they're always on the lookout for new viruses to examine."

"A'right," Zoet said, shrugging. "Hey, when we get to HQ, we'll report this mission as completed and pick up the reward from dispatch - then we're done for the day. Unless . . ."

"Unless?" Chaud asked, glancing at her.

He somehow had a feeling that she was giving him a very devious smirk underneath that black visor. "Unless you wanna mess around with the VR system some more," she offered.

"VR system," Chaud and ProtoMan immediately replied.

Zoet snorted in amusement. "Knew you'd say that. There's this mountain forest level that you're gonna freakin' love to bits, it's perfect for ProtoMan's abilities. We can play Landslides."

"Landslides?"

"This game that Nowhere kids play sometimes - basically you pretend that you're about to be caught in a landslide, and you gotta get to the 'safe point' as fast as possible. First one there wins and the last one there 'dies'. It gets really intense sometimes," she explained. "You in?"

"Wouldn't it be unfair with three Navis playing, though?" ProtoMan wondered.

"Not really. The VR system can generate dummy Navis and dummy NetOps to train with, so we'll have it create a couple of dummy operators to even the odds. Flight, you'll be confined to the ground on account of the fact that you can fly at supersonic speeds." Zoet ignored her gendered Navi's cry of dismay. "Meanwhile, ProtoMan, you are not allowed to help out this dumb chicken nugget here."

"Chicken what?" Chaud repeated. He was too surprised at that to be offended about the 'dumb' comment.

"Chicken nugget. What, you guys don't have chicken nuggets in Electopia?"

"No, no, we have them, it's just . . . Why did you call _me_ one?"

"Because of reasons."

 **OOOOOO**

And there we go! An entire chapter of Chaud's POV, with him doing a standard mission for the Underground NetBattlers with Zoet.

Well, I say 'standard', but it kinda turned out more serious than anyone expected. That was planned by the way - I was originally gonna have the little girl be kidnapped right from the start, but I didn't want the mission to come from Kris or any of her NetBattlers team, so I changed the plot of the mission a little bit and added in the kidnapping thing after the kid went wandering off.

Also we get Zoet calling Chaud a dumb chicken nugget. I wanna have her call him this a few times purely because the phrase is extremely amusing.

Oh, and about Flight's, well, flight speed - she really can fly at supersonic speeds. In the air, she's one of the fastest Navis in all of Savaro, but on the ground she's kind of at a disadvantage. Well, what'd you expect? Her name's Flight and she has wings.

But anyway, we also get to see another Savaron virus (I'm literally just making up a whole bunch of new ones for the hell of it because why not) which is very dangerous and very powerful. Spoiler alert, but Chaud and ProtoMan will have to fight an Inky at some point, if I have anything to say about it.

The Inky is actually based on a drawing I made a few weeks ago, which was based on this weird-looking stain I found on a table in my college's workshop. The creature I designed from that looks exactly how it was described in this chapter, a giant black cat made entirely of dripping ink with blank white eyes. I love the design and concept so much that I decided to put it into here.

Anyway, I've designed something else to go with the things I've already shown you guys for profiles!

/022fbi8b2zj7

Say hi to Zoet, everyone. The sunglasses she's wearing in that design are the ones she's gonna get in the future, and she's not wearing any type of sunglasses at the moment because she's not outside and therefore not in natural sunlight. And she looks like a boy because, if everyone remembers, Chaud mistook her for a boy when they first met and Lan currently thinks Zoet is a boy as well.

/01ndi1falgd8

Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

Flight.

/026mkj34tsh1

The map.

/01lqxk014x6q

And the battle suit.

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

Read and review, people!


	12. Chapter 12 - Basic Attacks

I forgot to mention this last chapter, but I've managed to get my hands on a couple of actual ribbon streamers - a purple one and a red one, both from this awesome festival I went to recently. Originally I was just gonna get the purple one, but then I remembered this fic and I was like 'omg I want the red one too' and luckily I had more than enough money for both of them, so now I've got a couple of awesome ribbon streamers.

Damn do I love those things. They're also ridiculously long, which makes it very difficult for me to play with them since I have limited space indoors and the wind keeps messing up any plans I have for playing with them outside, so . . .

Anyway. Profiles!

/022fbi8b2zj7

Zoet.

/01ndi1falgd8

Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

Flight.

/026mkj34tsh1

The map.

/01lqxk014x6q

And the battle suit.

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

And about Zoet's design, if she ever goes anywhere like Electopia or whatever, she'll probably end up swapping out her sleeveless hoodie for one with actual sleeves. Y'know, cus she's used to a hot climate even if she lives underground. Just throwing that out there.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"So, why ProtoMan?"

"I dunno, I was like five when I programmed him, it seemed like a good idea at the time," Chaud replied with a sigh. "You know, no one's ever actually asked me about his name before I came here. Now suddenly everyone's questioning it."

"You basically called your Navi prototype-man," Zoet pointed out flatly. "Of course we're gonna question that."

"It sounded cool at the time," Chaud muttered. "Still does actually, so stop complaining already. Besides, you know what I've noticed about Savaron Navi names?"

"What?"

"Literally none of them have any suffixes," he said. "Take your guys, for example - Virus and Flight. In Electopia or Netopia or even Sharo, they might be called something like . . . I dunno, VirusMan or FlightWoman or whatever."

"Virus doesn't have a gender, therefore it can't be called 'man'," Zoet reminded him. "And FlightWoman just sounds stupid."

"Yeah, you're right, that was a bad example . . . Okay, take your mom's Navi. He's called Jackal, and in Electopia, he might have been called JackalMan."

"That is a better example," Zoet agreed, "and I see what you mean. But that still doesn't answer the question of why you called your Navi prototype-man. He's not a prototype, as far as I'm aware."

"I was originally gonna call him Blues," Chaud mused.

Zoet looked at him like he had two heads.

"What?" he asked defensively.

"A red Navi called Blues?" Zoet scoffed. "Yeah, that would've worked _so well_."

"As in the genre of music, not the colour," Chaud snapped. "And you call me stupid . . ."

"I call you an idiot, actually."

"What's the difference?"

Zoet paused, and then shrugged. "Fair enough," she admitted. "But still. Blues? ProtoMan? What in the hell were you even thinking? Why not something like Cut - or CutMan, since you guys like the whole 'man' thing for whatever reason . . ."

"There was already a CutMan, but I think MegaMan deleted him," Chaud replied. "And I reiterate - I was five. You expect a five-year-old to be able to name something with any intelligence whatsoever? Besides, you're one to talk. Virus is basically half-virus, and Flight can fly. Amazing naming skills there."

"They're descriptive names, Virus isn't it's original name, and it was my mom who made them, not me, therefore the blame does not lie on my shoulders," Zoet retorted. "Unlike you, who somehow managed to program a fully-functional NetNavi at _age five_. What're you, a child genius or something?"

"Well, yeah."

Zoet rolled her eyes. "How freakin' modest," she said flatly. "Great, so we've got a weird combo here - rude girl and smart boy. That's one for a world record. Wanna do anything else dumb or should we just throw ourselves off the nearest cliff right now?"

"And what exactly were you doing at age five?" Chaud shot back, feeling incredibly insulted.

"Hitting things with sticks because I like drums, duh. Actually I was five when my mom gave me my PET . . ."

Chaud almost immediately forgot his offence in the face of his curiosity. "Really?"

"No, I just told you that so you'd shut the hell up," Zoet snapped sarcastically. "Of course _really_. On my fifth birthday she gave me a custom-made PET containing twin NetNavis."

"Custom-made?"

"She specialises in PET-production, what else did you expect me to have?" Zoet rolled her eyes, and then went on. "And she custom-made it for me because I didn't want a standard PET - those are all built for right-handed people, and I had a lot of trouble using the dummy PETs they gave us to practise with at school. So she decided to make a custom PET built exclusively for lefties like me, and gave me the prototype version, which she updated as the years went by and PETs got more and more advanced."

"I never noticed, but the PETs actually _are_ built mostly for right-handed people," Chaud commented, taking his own PET out and examining it. The download slot for battle chips on his PET was on the right side, while the slot on Zoet's PET was on the left. "Maybe I should suggest a special design for anyone who has problems using it . . ."

"Man, Electopia is so behind on the times," Zoet muttered.

"Hey," Chaud protested half-heartedly.

"Meh, I can't say much either, it was only when I complained about it that my mom and anyone else even realised that lefties and whatever have issues with the standard PET design," Zoet went on, shrugging. Then she paused, and frowned. "Wait, weren't we talking about your shitty Navi-naming skills? How did we get here?"

"I, uh, I'm not entirely sure."

"You broke all social conventions to do with the basic laws of conversation, that's how," ProtoMan informed them, completely deadpan.

 **oooo**

ProtoMan had noticed that Chaud had begun to open up more ever since Zoet had admitted that she considered him her friend. Since that amazing revelation came directly as a result of Chaud falling out with his Electopian group of friends, ProtoMan wasn't entirely sure whether or not that was a good thing. Sure, it was good that Chaud had made a new friend, but since it happened because he lost the others . . .

Well, he was worried, basically. But Chaud hadn't mentioned anything, or maybe he just hadn't noticed anything, so ProtoMan wouldn't say anything either.

A ball of electricity suddenly exploded against the floor to his right, and he jumped and jerked his head up.

Jackal was frowning at him from several metres away. "Hey, pay attention, little red," the black animal-Navi said. "You wanted to see what we could do, the least you can do is actually watch."

"Right, of course, my apologies," ProtoMan quickly said, nodding. His worries about Chaud were distracting him, but since he'd been the one to suggest this, well . . . Jackal was right. He'd better pay attention.

The other Navis of the four leaders lounged around nearby, while Flight and Virus stood together on the other side of the digital arena. They were using the training room's VR system, and Jackal had requested a basic digital arena with datablocks and the standard panel-flooring of a battlefield from the operator.

Jackal nodded back to him, and turned back to face Flight and Virus.

"You two sure you wanna be the dummies here?" Jackal called. "Virtue can just give me targets to hit, you know."

"Aw, but then ProtoMan won't get to see what you can do for real!" Flight called back cheerfully. "Dummy Navis are crap anyway, the only way to see the real effects is to hit a real Navi. Just, uh, try not to delete us."

"Zoet would be most unpleased," Virus agreed. Its monotone voice gave away absolutely nothing and ProtoMan had to wonder whether or not it was worried about getting hit with whatever Jackal's basic attack was.

Then again, Jackal wouldn't be the only one to show off his basic attack here. The other leaders' Navis, along with Flight and Virus themselves - and then ProtoMan, because it was only fair - were going to show off their own basic attacks. He'd already seen Virus's Design Shift, but apparently there was more to it than Virus had shown him, and it still had yet to actually use Smile as well. Flight's basic attack was something called Mummify, but she hadn't told ProtoMan what it could do, only saying that she wasn't going to ruin the surprise. And this was also a good opportunity to see what the leaders' Navis could do, too.

He hadn't honestly expected to be able to see all of them at once. Initially he'd only asked Jackal, who he saw more of than the others due to his operator hanging out with the daughter of Jackal's own operator, but then Jackal had mentioned that the leaders' Navis wanted to see what ProtoMan could do and things had sort of spun out of ProtoMan's control from there.

But, whatever. He could see the basic attacks of the Navis in the training room with him, and Chaud would be glad to see it to - ProtoMan was recording everything for him, so he could see exactly how powerful the leaders' Navis were.

"If you two are absolutely certain," Jackal said, leaving the words hanging for a moment.

"Hurry it up!" Flight cried impatiently. "We've got like twenty recovery chips anyway, just hit us already!"

"Well, since you insist . . ."

Jackal shifted his stance, straightening up, and then brought up his hands. At first they were spread out, but as he spoke, he clenched them into claws.

"Electro Tomb!" Jackal declared.

ProtoMan wasn't sure what he'd been expecting when he'd said that, but four sarcophagi rising out of the ground, effectively surrounding Flight and Virus, was not it. Then Jackal unclenched his hands, and suddenly the sarcophagi lids sprang open, each one letting out a burst of electricity that latched onto Flight and Virus, electrocuting them. Flight was yelling in pain, but ProtoMan couldn't be sure whether or not Virus was also yelling, although it certainly was in just as much pain.

After ten or so seconds, the four sarcophagi lids slammed shut, cutting off the electric charge holding Flight and Virus in place - both of them dropped to the floor gratefully - and vanished back down into the floor. Little sparks continued to fly across both injured Navis for a moment or two, but then those vanished as well and Flight and Virus stood up, albeit a little awkwardly.

"Ow," Flight said.

"That was most unpleasant," Virus agreed. Once again its tone of voice betrayed absolutely nothing and ProtoMan just had to wonder what exactly had happened to screw up Virus's data that badly.

"You agreed to it," Jackal reminded them, rolling his eyes. As Livid wandered over to Zoet's two Navis and began applying the recovery chips, Jackal turned to ProtoMan. "So, that's my main basic attack - Electro Tomb. It does about one hundred damage per sarcophagi, so if all four of them hit the damage is usually four hundred hit points, but the sarcophagi can be destroyed so I normally get about two hundred instead. The electric shocks latch onto my target - whatever I've surrounded with the Electro Tomb - and keep it in place for ten seconds, dealing the damage, and then after the sarcophagi disappear my target is paralysed for a couple more seconds. I can do a lot of damage in those seconds."

ProtoMan was already thinking of ways to get out of the Electro Tomb without wasting time on destroying the sarcophagi - it looked like Jackal controlled when they opened at will, so simply breaking them before they could open was unlikely to work every single time if Jackal was expecting it. Maybe if he jumped? But, no, the attack latched onto a target, so maybe they also homed in on whatever Jackal had targeted. Hm . . . this was going to be a challenge.

Next up was Racket, who insisted on using the VR system's hologram program to show off rather than Flight and Virus, who both seemed far too eager to get blasted with whatever Racket could do.

Racket requested a solid holographic wall - not unlike the walk-through wall in the antique shop entrance, but if you walked into this one you would bounce off rather than go straight through it. It wasn't easy to break, she explained, and that would let her show off her own basic attack much better than using it on another NetNavi.

The black and white Navi squared her shoulders, locking her boomboxes into place.

"Boom Blast!" she announced.

ProtoMan only got half a second's warning before a visible and very, very loud shockwave of pure sound blasted out of her boomboxes, almost deafening him - he covered his ears and winced at the volume, but kept an eye on the shockwave's path. As he watched, the shockwave reached the holographic wall and blew it apart instantly.

A moment passed, and Racket turned around. Her mouth was moving but ProtoMan couldn't hear anything other than the loud ringing in his head, and out of the corner of his eyes he could see Woodchip, one of Roahm's Navis, rubbing his ears and wincing.

Racket seemed to realised that she'd accidentally deafened everyone, and she waited for them all to recover before speaking again.

"Oopsie," she said, grinning. "I keep forgetting about that. So, yeah, Boom Blast is basically just a shockwave of sound that can blast anything to bits - Flight, Virus, I know you guys are as far out as your operator, but you were way too willing to get busted by my tunes, seriously. A single shockwave does fifty hit points' worth of damage."

"Can you make it a continuous sound or is it just that singular blast?" ProtoMan asked curiously, noting her use of words.

Racket grinned at him, and opened her mouth. Woodchip quickly cut her off.

"Yes, she can, and no, she will not demonstrate it," the squirrel-type Navi snapped, glaring at Racket. "We have enough of you blasting your inane music through the speaker systems, we don't need you breaking our hearing as well."

"Inane?" Racket repeated incredulously. "My music is not _inane_ , you damn squirrel, it's _awesome_!"

"It is the exact opposite and you know it! At least play it at a reasonable volume rather than attempting to deafen every Navi and human that's in our employ!"

"Oh, shut up, you net-hopping piece of-"

"That's enough," Livid said.

His tone was perfectly calm and in no way threatening whatsoever, but just speaking was enough to shut both Navis up. That made ProtoMan curious - did Livid really live up to his name somehow, or was it just his authority as the overall leader of the Navi group that made them listen to him?

After all, his was the most basic Navi design out of all of them. Standard Navis generally weren't too powerful, although ProtoMan wasn't one to discount them - he and Chaud had fought their share of standard Navis and had learnt not to underestimate them just because they were, well, standard. Maybe Livid had some sort of secret power that made others fear him? Or it could have just been pure respect, you never know. Fear wasn't the only way to lead an organisation such as this one.

"Oi, Woodchip, why don't you go next?" Jackal suggested. "Use some of that annoyance to show off."

"Bah," Woodchip muttered. He flicked his tail angrily in Racket's general direction, but swapped places with her all the same.

He crossed his arms briefly, still annoyed, and the only sign of movement came from his tail, which was still flicking a little. Absolutely nothing happened for several moments, but just as ProtoMan was beginning to wonder if he was too angry to even do anything, Woodchip threw his arms out wide and his tail went ramrod straight.

"Vine Crash!" he announced.

The ground rumbled, and giant, thick digivines burst out of nowhere, surrounding Woodchip like a barrier and lashing out in all directions. There were sharp-looking thorns on the digivines, and they shredded the ground as they thrashed around, whipping at imaginary enemies with shocking speed despite the digivines' size and length. Woodchip directed all of the digivines with flicks of his hands and tail, barely turning his head to check where he was sending them, and then he made a grand gesture and suddenly all of the giant digivines slithered back into the holes they had burst out of.

After the frenzy of digivines was gone, Woodchip ambled back over to the other leaders' Navi and leaned against a nearby datablock almost too casually. Livid glanced at him, head tilted, and then went over to the destroyed panels where the digivines had burst out of to start repairing them with a few Repair chips.

"And that's why I'm the guy they send to deal with digivines," Woodchip said.

" . . . Wow," was all ProtoMan could say to that.

"Did you notice how the digivines surrounded me?" Woodchip asked. ProtoMan nodded and Woodchip went on, slightly smug. "I can control where the digivines come from, but if I don't, they default to surrounding me in a protective barrier. Even if you don't get hit by one of my digivines, you won't be able to get past them."

"What's the damage like?" ProtoMan asked him.

"Fifty each - the most digivines I can summon at once is eight, so the more I have on the battlefield, the more powerful Vine Crash becomes," Woodchip replied. "I can hit multiple times with them, too, so you'd better not think they'll vanish after getting your ass spiked once."

"Duly noted."

"My turn," Mythril declared, stalking forward. She paused, and glanced at ProtoMan. "If you're suitably impressed, give me your shiny hair."

"Um, please stop trying to steal my hair."

"Give me your hair."

"No thank you."

"Give it."

"Mythril, stop it, you've got a million bits of mystery data and bugfrags, you don't need the poor guy's hair as well," Woodchip said irritably.

"One can never have enough shinies," the wyvern-Navi said wisely. She thankfully turned away from ProtoMan and rolled her neck, a movement which somehow managed to involve her entire body. "My basic attack is also very shiny. Ice Crash!"

Woodchip and Mythril were both Roahm's Navis, and the name of her basic attack was half-similar to Woodchip's, so ProtoMan had sort of expected something similar to what Woodchip had shown.

But then Mythril opened her mouth wide and let out a breath of pure ice that froze everything it touched as she raked it across the ground like it was some sort of icy laser beam. She kept the icy breath on the ground for a few moments, and then, without even stopping the attack, lifted her head and started freezing the datablocks floating around.

The icy breath only cut off when Mythril snapped her mouth shut. She turned around and looked at ProtoMan smugly.

"Shiny hair, now," she demanded.

"Mythril," Livid said warningly.

Mythril hissed at him and slunk over to Woodchip. White frost accompanied her breath as she muttered to herself, showing just how cold her Ice Crash really was.

ProtoMan glanced at Livid, half-expecting him to start fixing up the ice as well, but Livid made no move towards it.

"Her attack does more damage the longer she lets it go on," Woodchip said, distracting him. "It gets colder and colder, see."

"There's no fixed damage," Mythril growled, still looking grumpy at being denied ProtoMan's long white hair. "It just freezes everything. You get trapped in my shiny ice, you take damage over time. You become my shiny."

"Is it possible to melt the ice?" ProtoMan wondered. Perhaps that was why Livid hadn't gone to remove it.

"With powerful Heat-element chips," Mythril replied angrily, as if she was offended at the thought of someone daring to melt her shiny ice. "I don't like Heat-element chips. They hurt my ice and they hurt me."

"You're Aqua-element," Jackal reminded her.

"MY SHINY ICE IS NOT," Mythril bellowed, rearing up onto her hind legs and throwing out her wings threateningly. Her tail lashed behind her, thumping into a datablock and cracking it, but no one other than ProtoMan jumped. Clearly they were all used to her doing that, but she was such a large Navi that it was impossible to not be wary of her losing her temper.

"Please calm yourself, Mythril," Livid told her, once again being the only voice of reason among a seemingly-insane group of Navis. "If you want to lose control, do so on your own time, but for now you'll have to wait. Flight, Virus and I still want to show ProtoMan our basic attacks, and we won't be able to do so if you destroy the VR system or the training room. Again."

Mythril growled and for a heartbeat it looked as though she was about to launch herself at Livid, but all the much-smaller Navi did was fix his gaze on her and she stopped growling and dropped down onto all fours within moments.

"Fine," she snapped. "Have your fun. I have my shinies, and I _will_ have that hair even if-"

"I'll find you some locked mystery data tomorrow, how about that?" Woodchip interrupted.

Mythril looked at him for a moment, and then nodded. "I want ten. And find five blue mystery datas too. I noticed my collection of that doesn't have as many as the other datas."

"Got it."

"And now that that drama is out of the way . . ." Livid turned to Flight and Virus. "Would you two like to go first, or shall I?"

"Yours would be an awesome finisher, so we'll go first," Flight said. Livid nodded and stepped back to allow them some space, and Flight looked at ProtoMan. "I'll go first since you've already seen a bit of what Virus can do."

Virus stepped away from Flight, giving her a lot of room - was her basic attack something like Woodchip's, then? Flight gave ProtoMan a devious smirk, and then suddenly threw her arms up into the air.

"Mummify!" she cried.

ProtoMan stiffened in surprise when the bandages wrapped around her arms seemed to come undone - although apparently more bandages were under the ones that had just unwrapped themselves, because all he saw were more bandages underneath them - and went flying in all directions.

He was so surprised at the unwrapping bandages that he didn't notice they were shooting towards him until it was too late, and then suddenly ProtoMan found himself tied up in Flight's bandages. The opposite ends were still attached to her arms, and she gripped them with her hands and pulled, yanking ProtoMan off his feet with a triumphant yell (he let out a startled one) and half-dragging him across the ground until he was a few feet away from her.

The bandages relaxed and then slithered off him, going back to wrap themselves around Flight's arms once again, and ProtoMan pulled himself back to his feet quickly and stared at her. He was very glad for the visor on his helmet, which covered his wide, startled eyes.

"And that was Mummify," Flight said smugly. "My bandages unwrap themselves and I can throw them at my opponent, basically mummifying them, and I can then grip my bandages and chuck my opponent all over the place. Consider yourself lucky I only dragged you across the floor, I've done a lot worse!"

"I can imagine," ProtoMan agreed, thankfully managing to keep the surprise out of his voice.

"Zoet's already said, but I can also fly at supersonic speeds - so I'm one of the fastest sky-based Navis in the entire organisation," Flight went on proudly, puffing out her chest.

"Put her on the ground and she's slower than Racket," Woodchip put in.

"I will Boom Blast you into the Science network," Racket threatened.

"Try it," Woodchip shot back.

Livid looked at them and they shut up instantly.

Meanwhile, Virus had stepped forward and had brought up a small holographic window and was tapping away on it. It paused for a moment, tilting its head to one side and searching through whatever data it had found on the window, and then tapped one file.

"I am aware that you wish to see Smile in this form," it said, turning its head towards ProtoMan. "However, to do so would also cause you to be jacked out and forced back into your operator's PET, which will not do. So I have decided to simply show you a recording of Smile, which is simply an image and does not have the same effect. Once you have seen that, I will show you Design Shift's full capabilities."

"Alright then," ProtoMan agreed.

Virus nodded in return, and flipped the window over so ProtoMan could see. It tapped the 'play' icon, and the video file started.

It showed Virus looking at the screen and standing perfectly, unnaturally still. Someone was talking off-screen.

 _"All you gotta do is use Smile, I don't see the damn problem,"_ a voice that ProtoMan recognised as Zoet's snapped.

 _"Would that not damage the systems?"_ the Virus in the recording asked.

 _"No, you dumbass, it only works on Navis and viruses."_

The Virus in the recording tilted its head slightly. _"Very well then,"_ it said.

It tilted its head back to straight, simply looking at the camera-screen in silence for a few moments.

ProtoMan suddenly became aware of a strange ripping sound, as if someone was slowly tearing up a piece of paper. He briefly wondered where the sound was coming from, but then noticed that the head of the Virus in the recording was slowly beginning to split open in a poor imitation of someone opening their mouth. As ProtoMan stared, fascinated but horrified, Virus's 'mouth' opened wider until it was just a gaping jaw with a few strips of half-split skin still attaching the two parts of its 'mouth'. It looked as if someone had tried to hack open a mouth for the faceless Navi but hadn't done so with any sort of finesse or knowledge as to what they were doing.

 _"And that continues to be horrifyingly awesome,"_ Zoet's voice commented. _"Right, you're done now. Design Shift your way outta that and get back to . . . What were you even doing, anyway?"_

 _"Kicking my ass at Landslides, that's what!"_ Flight's voice called from further away. There was no sign of her on-screen, but it sounded as though she was somewhere to the right and far behind Virus.

Virus's blank NaviMarks began to glow with that white light that ProtoMan recognised as it using Design Shift to change its design data into that of another Navi's, and after the light died down, it was an almost-perfect copy of a crocodile-like Navi that he'd never met before. As usual the NaviMarks of the copied Navi were blank like Virus's, and its 'mouth' was no longer split open like a gaping wound.

The recording ended there, and Virus banished the window with a fick of its long-fingered four-clawed hand.

"And that is Smile as it is used in my base form, that which you see before you," it told ProtoMan. "It causes instant jack-out for any Navi who is unfortunate enough to catch a glimpse of it, hence why I did not wish to show it to you myself. It also 'unhinges' my jaw, and the only way to get it back to how it was is to use Design Shift, which automatically fixes any anomalies in my base form. The same is also true for the reverse - if I use Smile while using another Navi's design data, all I need to do to fix it is use Design Shift again or switch back to my base form."

"That is horrifying and I'm very glad you decided not to show me for real," ProtoMan admitted.

Virus agreed to that with a slight incline of its head.

"So, what else is there to Design Shift that you haven't already shown me?"

"You already know its main purpose," Virus began. "I am able to scan another Navi for their design data, save it within my own memory data, and then use Design Shift to take on the form of that Navi. However, the design data is incredibly fragile on its own, and thus . . ."

Its NaviMarks glowed, and by the time the light died down, ProtoMan found himself looking up at a blank-NaviMarked-Jackal. There was also something else that he hadn't noticed about Design Shift as well - the only reason he hadn't noticed it before was because, when Virus had used his design data to show it to him, his eyes were covered by his visor and so Virus's eyes were also covered by the same visor.

Its eyes were blank and white, as opposed to Jackal's normal black on gold. And now that its face wasn't half-concealed, ProtoMan could see the blank expression more clearly. It seemed that Design Shift couldn't give Virus an expression or even eyes, not even when it was using a Navi whose design data included both a face and eyes.

"If you would kindly remove yourself from my path?" Virus asked with Jackal's now-monotone voice.

ProtoMan, puzzled, did as he was asked and watched Virus walk up to the datablock that had been hovering a few feet behind ProtoMan. Virus glanced over its shoulder to check that ProtoMan was watching, and then drew back its hand, curling it into a fist. And then it lunged forward, slamming that fist into the datablock with all of its strength behind the blow.

Its arm broke at the elbow with a loud _snap_ , the data-bones snapping out in a burst of pixels but still staying within the arm itself, and when Virus drew its hand back, ProtoMan was horrified to see that the hand was also incredibly damaged - four of the fingers had been crushed into deletion and were bleeding pixels out of the open wounds, and the rest of the hand was just limp and broken.

Virus, apparently not bothered by the fact that it had just shattered its hand and broken the data-bones in its arm so badly that they were just hanging out, stepped back and turned around to face ProtoMan again.

"The design data is, as I have said, fragile on its own - and thus my own data while using Design Shift is also fragile," it explained. "However, the nature of Design Shift also means that I can fix the damage easily, as all I need to do is use it once again or switch back to my base form. There is no permanent damage done to the design data that is damaged, and it is reset each time I use it. The fragile data also allows me to put my full strength behind my attacks, something I would not normally do in my base form unless absolutely necessary, which also results in injuries such as the one I have just sustained."

"D . . . doesn't that hurt?" ProtoMan faintly wondered.

"Yes, quite a lot actually," Virus replied.

ProtoMan worked his mouth for a moment or two, trying to figure out how to realistically respond to that. Chaud was going to freak out when he saw this, he just knew it.

Virus tilted its head at him curiously, and then its NaviMarks began glowing white again. A moment later it had gone back to its base form, and indeed, the broken arm and shattered hand were completely healed as if the injury had never even happened.

Automatic healing. Huh.

"Does the healing factor count towards hit points as well?" he wondered, feeling less horrified now that he knew Virus hadn't done irreparable damage just to show him what Design Shift could do.

"It does not," Virus answered with a shake of its now-faceless head. "The damage done to my own data is the only thing that is repaired upon use of Design Shift. My hit points are not counted as part of the data that is repaired. It is unfortunate, but if it was, many would consider this to be unfair - especially during friendly NetBattles, as it would mean I could drag out a fight and take down my opponent just by using Design Shift near-constantly."

"Zoet actually wanted hit points to be counted for repairs," Flight added, "but her mom basically said the same thing Virus just did. And of course Zoet didn't give a damn - a win is a win even if anyone else counts it as cheating, she always says - but it was Virus's decision in the end, and it chose not to include hit points."

"You agreed with Zoet, if I recall correctly," Virus said.

"Still do, but, eh, can't have everything."

"You guys done yet, 'cus Livid still has his basic move to show off," Racket called.

The three of them turned around to face the leaders' Navis, and ProtoMan noticed that Livid had gone over to stand near the ice that had been left behind by Mythril's Ice Crash attack. The others aside from Racket had, for whatever reason, relocated themselves on top of a wide datablock.

"Get up here, otherwise you'll be burnt to deletion," Racket informed them, before jumping up to the top of the datablock.

ProtoMan was once again puzzled, but followed Flight and Virus as they flew and jumped up to the top of the same datablock. Livid glanced up at them to check everyone was on top of the datablock, and then he nodded to himself and raised his hands, holding them a foot apart from each other with the palms facing inwards.

A small ball of fire began to spark between his hands, and it grew rapidly until it was almost as big as Livid's head. Then he drew his arms up until they were high above his head, where the ball of fire continued to grow.

"Ragefire!" he shouted clearly, throwing the ball at the ground. That caused the ball of fire to blast out in every direction, and within moments the entire battlefield below was covered in nothing but warping flames.

ProtoMan couldn't even see Livid through the flames, which were rapidly getting more and more intense as he watched. Now he understood why he and the other Navis had relocated to the top of a datablock - anything on the ground would have been burnt to deletion by that attack. He glanced at the ice left behind by Ice Crash, and was surprised to see it melting rapidly until it was nothing more than vapour which was then burnt into pixels.

The inferno began to die down slowly, revealing Livid standing in the middle of it all, an intense red glow emanating from his body. He lifted his head to look at the Navis perched on the datablock - his eyes were burning with a fierce and brilliant fire - and gestured toward the dying flames.

At once, the entire inferno vanished, and left behind a field of lava that boiled and bubbled threateningly.

" . . . Jesus christ," ProtoMan said softly.

"And that's why he's the leader of the Navis," Woodchip put in, somewhat unnecessarily.

 **OOOOOO**

That bit at the start there was basically just so I could have a conversation with Zoet questioning Chaud's naming skills and also so I could mention ProtoMan's Japanese name. I love his Japanese name, but I use English names, so I have to go with ProtoMan, which is also pretty awesome - if a little weird, at least in the _Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ series, since he's not a prototype. I also wanted to give them a chance to discuss the differences in naming themes between Electopia/everywhere else and Savaro.

But yeah anyway, I've also wanted to do this since I started the fic. I wrote down basic descriptions of the basic attacks of each of the leaders' Navis, and here I've expanded on them to show you guys exactly why they're the leaders of all the Navis in the Underground NetBattlers.

The first basic attack I came up with was actually Ragefire, which is basically unsurvivable unless you've got Bass's insanely-OP Life Aura or something. It also turns every single panel in the battlefield into lava panels after the inferno part of the attack is over, so anything that's lucky enough to survive will probably regret it. So yeah, despite being a plain standard Navi with those weird upside-down triangle eyes (I like the image, sue me), Livid is actually one of the most powerful Navis in the entire organisation, maybe in all of Savaro.

Some other trivia about the attacks - everyone except for Flight, Virus and Racket had theirs changed.

For Jackal, his attack was originally that ball of electricity, which would have homed in on his target. I decided to change it to Electro Tomb since he's heavily based on Anubis, and thus Egyptian stuff.

For Woodchip, the attack was called Tree Crash, and it was literally just a giant tree slamming into whatever he wanted it to. I switched it to Vine Crash because I liked that image better.

And finally, for Mythril, the attack hasn't really changed that much - except instead of a breath of freezing cold ice, it was just more or less the same as Woodchip's original Tree Crash, the only difference being that Mythril created a giant iceberg and slammed it onto whatever she pleased. I thought she'd be better off with the ice breath attack since she'd a wyvern/dragon.

Oh, and in case anyone's wondering why I didn't show off ProtoMan's stuff, that's because we already sort of know what he can do - that Sonic Boom thing (at least in the anime, which I like, so therefore he can do it here as well) and also Delta Ray Edge, which is just the coolest thing ever, and the standard Proto Sword. Not to mention Proto Shield, and the anime-exclusive Blade Cyclone. So yeah that's what ProtoMan can do in this universe.

And I've recently realised that I'm going on MegaMan's basic stats, with him only having a single basic attack (the Mega Buster), while most Navis have like five or something. But meh, I think if I gave these guys any more than two or three, they'd get incredibly overpowered and things would just get way outta hand.

Plus, as we've already seen with Livid, it's not like any of them even _need_ more than one or two basic attacks. They're powerful enough on their own.

Read and review!


	13. Chapter 13 - The Inky Incident, Part 1

Only now do I realise I completely forgot the profiles in the last AN . . . oh well, who gives a damn. Maybe I'll just limit them to the first AN, it might make the files for these chapters a bit smaller.

Anywho! I've finished watching RoahmMythril's _Let's Play_ of _MegaMan Battle Network 4_ , which means I've only got the last two games to watch now. Only problem is, he hasn't done _LP_ s of five and six, meaning I've had to find _Let's Plays_ from other Youtubers, and . . . well, let's just say they're not as good quality as Roahm's. I got about halfway through an episode from one guy before deciding that his voiceacting (also everythingacting) sucked balls, and I checked others for about five seconds before deciding they also sucked, but the good news is I've managed to find a _Let's Play_ that doesn't suck as much as the others do. His voiceacting leaves something to be desired, but his is the lesser of every single evil that I've found so far. I . . . also can't remember his YouTube name, but meh, I'm only watching his stuff for the game/plot, so whatever. He's certainly not inspiring any fics from me.

But yeah enough of how much other _MegaMan_ _LP_ -ers suck in comparison to Roahm.

Since we had an entire chapter of ProtoMan (or most of one, anyway), I've decided to give you guys an entire chapter of Lan. I have been neglecting his POVs but I've already sort of explained why - because most of the plot I've come up with focuses on Chaud and his adventures with the Underground NetBattlers. I'm gonna give him one here just to try and even it all out, though I'm not really keeping track of how many POVs any of the characters even have. I do know there's only four possibilities, with Chaud and ProtoMan being the main characters and Lan and MegaMan being sub-characters.

Man, if this was a game, Lan's version would suck and Chaud's would be so much cooler.

Anyway, profiles.

/022fbi8b2zj7

Zoet.

/01ndi1falgd8

Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

Flight.

/026mkj34tsh1

The map.

/01lqxk014x6q

And the battle suit.

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

Anywho, we also get to see how the Underground NetBattlers operate from an outsider's POV (that outsider being Lan and the Underground NetBattlers, of course, using their Shade disguises).

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"What if we tried attaching that bit of data there to this part here?"

"No, that would collapse the entire program, we've already tried it."

"Let's try this algorithm!"

" . . . That's a music file, Dixie."

"Oh. Sorry, Professor."

"I need some more coffee. Does anyone want coffee?"

"You've had like ten cups in the past hour, stop already."

"You can never have too much coffee."

"I think in this case you can, you're bouncing off the walls as it is already-"

"-and you were hyper enough to start off with, so _chill out_ , man."

"But I need coffee!"

"Dr. Hikari, do you think we should try this instead?"

"I don't see why not, we've already gotten this far, so- wait. What did you just . . . You collapsed the program."

"Oh, crap, I'm so sorry . . ."

The data-bone reconstruction room was a flurry of voices and scientists running around everywhere - a couple of them were trying to calm down the coffee-hyper scientist who kept running around like a headless chicken - and methods and programs and algorithms were being tried and tested all around the room. Professor Hestia headed one team while Dad headed the other, and they collaborated when they needed to and swapped data and ideas constantly.

Meanwhile, Lan just sat on a chair near a wall, his PET propped up on a nearby table. His friends were sitting all around him on chairs as well, and their own PETs surrounded Lan's - their screens were blank however, as all of the Navis were currently inside of Lan's, trying to see if they could get MegaMan to react to something. Mostly they just talked to him.

On the other hand, Lan's friends also talked to him, trying their best to distract him. He knew they were just doing their best to help, and he was grateful for it, so he went along with it even though he kept stealing glances at his PET every so often just to check on what MegaMan was - or wasn't - doing.

He quickly focused his attention back on Yai, who was complaining about the spicy strawberry milk again.

"I tried to ask them to make it less spicy, but they didn't seem to understand," she complained grumpily, arms crossed and sulking. "The woman even asked me what I meant! Can you believe that? It's like they actually make it spicy here _as the norm_!"

"Maybe they do," Maylu suggested mildly, propping her head up in her hands. She and everyone else were already bored of Yai's complaining, but it was something to talk about while the scientists tried to come up with a method for fixing MegaMan.

"But that's just dumb! There's no need for strawberry milk to be spicy, it's fine as it is."

"You never know, the strawberries they use to make the milk here could be spicier in nature, so the milk ends up spicier than you're used to as a result," Tory pointed out.

"Like curry," Lan said, almost licking his lips at the thought of his all-time favourite food. "The flavour's different in every country - like, some places have it spicier than others while some would have the taste kinda watered down so it's not too intense, y'know?"

"Strawberry milk is not curry," Yai muttered.

"I think everything here's spicier than we're used to," Dex muttered. "I had some seafood the other day, and it was all . . . hot."

"It was all hot," Maylu repeated, deadpan.

"I dunno how else to describe it!" Dex defended himself. "It's kinda like Namaste, but they have some foods that aren't spicy. _Everything_ here is spicy. Even the spice."

Everyone stared at him blankly.

It took Dex a moment to figure out that what he'd just said made absolutely no sense whatsoever, but before he could try to correct himself, a sharp cry from one of the scientists working with Professor Hestia drew everyone's attention.

"We've lost connection to part of the network!" she exclaimed frantically.

"What?" Professor Hestia gasped, rushing over to peer at her screen. "How did this happen?"

"I don't know," the scientist replied, scanning her screen with frantic eyes and rapidly tapping away at the keyboard. "That Area of the network's been slowing down for a while now, but it still worked, so no one thought it was too urgent to fix it - but now the entire connection's just cut off! My Navi was in there, I can't even contact him!"

"It must be some sort of virus," Dad guessed, coming over himself. "Do you know of any Savaron viruses that can cut off an entire section of a network like this?"

"Not any that I know of, although there is one that can _take over_ an entire Area of a network," Professor Hestia replied. "No virus can just shut it down, though."

"Should we call the police?" one of the other scientists wondered.

Professor Hestia shook his head. "No, this doesn't seem like a coordinated attack of any kind. You said that Area of the network had been slow for a while now?" He directed the question at the scientist who had alerted everyone to the problem.

She nodded. "It started a few days ago, just a few bits of data lagging here and there, but it wasn't too urgent since slow networks can be fixed easily. I didn't think it would be too much of a problem so when I sent in an error report, I didn't mark it as urgent. I . . . I guess I screwed up there, huh?" The scientist sighed.

"Don't worry," Professor Hestia assured her, patting her shoulder. "This isn't your fault, a slow network isn't exactly a priority and no one can predict whether or not something like this will happen. But this is still a huge problem . . . Perhaps we should call in the Shades."

For whatever reason, those seemed to be the magic words.

Most of the scientists in the room perked up and began muttering excitedly to each other, and Lan occasionally picked up something about 'high tech suits' being thrown around a few times. One or two looked mildly apprehensive, but they didn't voice any objections.

"Shades?" Dad repeated, looking at the group of scientists in puzzlement. "Are those defence programs?"

"No, they're people," Professor Hestia explained, turning to face him properly. "I think the best way to describe it is . . . You Electopians have people called Official NetBattlers, right?"

"That's right," Dad confirmed, with a glance at Lan and his friends, who were paying rapt attention by now. "And we also have city NetBattlers, who can step in when Officials are unable to."

"Right," Professor Hestia said. "The Shades are sort of like that - you contact them by sending an email to their email address, and Shades will come to deal with your request however they see fit. We call them Shades because they wear a full-body high-tech suit, which is black in colour. If we send them an email now, we'll probably get one or two Shades showing up later today or tomorrow, depending on how urgent they feel our problem is."

"So these Shade people are kinda like secret NetBattlers?" Maylu called.

"That's right, although I'm not sure how your NetBattler societies work exactly," Professor Hestia agreed. "Savaro does have one of its own, but Nowhere City essentially takes care of itself, and we're fairly isolated even from our own country. I'll contact the Shades and ask if they can come and fix the problem as soon as possible. Everyone just continue with what you were doing before, but stay away from the cut off Area."

He hurried out of the room, the doors sliding shut behind him, and everyone went back to what they had been doing before - although they were still muttering excitedly.

Dad came over to Lan and his friends, but before he could say anything, the doors opened once again, and in walked Dr. Arin Zaliki.

The probably-crazy woman took one look at the situation and raised an eyebrow.

"Anyone mind telling me what happened in here?" she asked, glancing around. She spotted Dad and grinned. "Hey, Dr. Hikari! Did you figure out how to fix your Navi kid yet?"

"Part of the network has been cut off," Dad explained.

Arin immediately turned serious. The contrast was a little jarring. "Cut off?" she repeated, striding over to him. "How?"

"We think it was a virus, but we're not certain," Dad replied. "There was a Navi in there when it cut off, we've had no contact from it and no one knows what happened. All we do know is that that Area had been slowing down for a while now, but-"

"-no one thought it was serious enough to make it urgent," Arin finished. "Right . . . Is that why Gordon was hurrying out like that?"

Lan wondered who Gordon was, but then he realised that was probably the first name of Professor Hestia.

"He's gone to email some people called . . . Shades, I think he said?" Dad shrugged. "I'm not too sure."

Arin, for whatever reason, started smiling again. "Ah, of course," she said knowingly. "Dr. Hikari, I can tell you're worried, so why don't you come with me and we can get some coffee? Kids, hope you don't mind me borrowing him."

"That's okay," Lan replied, puzzled, as Arin led his dad out of the room. He heard her mention the Shades as they left, but their conversation was cut off as the doors slid shut behind them.

 **oooo**

Professor Hestia came back twenty or so minutes later, having sent off an email to these Shade people, and Dad came back with Arin a few minutes later. He looked a lot calmer than he'd been before, although he kept glancing at Lan whenever he thought his son wasn't looking.

Lan couldn't help but wonder what those looks meant.

Two hours after Professor Hestia sent the email, two Shades appeared. They came in through the doors and Lan was surprised at how similar to Navis they looked - the full-body black suits made them look like digital warriors rather than actual people. Maybe that was the point, so people would know who they were. But it was still weird, and Lan found himself staring in fascination.

One Shade seemed more confident than the other - they strode forward and immediately demanded information on what had happened, while the other hung back and looked around curiously.

As soon as the second Shade caught sight of Lan and his friends, the Shade froze.

"So those're Shades, huh?" Maylu said, voice hushed. Lan could tell she was a little bit impressed, especially at how the more confident Shade had taken charge. "They look kinda cool."

"If they're anything like our NetBattlers, they are," Tory agreed.

"That one doesn't look too happy," Yai commented, pointing somewhat rudely at the second Shade. Lan almost wondered how she could even tell since there was a black visor covering the Shade's face, but then again, it was all over their body language - they were clearly uncomfortable.

"Yai, don't point, that's rude," Maylu hissed. Yai dismissed her with a casual wave of her hand.

"Let's go meet 'em!" Lan suggested brightly, jumping up. He glanced at their PETs, still grouped on the table, but decided to leave them there. No point in disturbing them if they'd made any progress, after all.

He went over to the second Shade, seeing as the first one was currently occupied, and his friends followed. When he got closer the Shade backed off a step and then froze again, like they were forcing themself to stay put.

"Hi," Lan said, holding his hand out. "I'm Lan Hikari!" Maybe being friendly would help make the Shade less uncomfortable.

But his hopes were dashed as the Shade looked at his hand, and then back at him. Lan almost wished that he could see the face of whoever was inside the suit, just so he could see their expression and not have to face this blank, emotionless visor. But then he remembered what Professor Hestia had told him and his friends about Shades - they were very secretive and didn't take too kindly to people prying into their business.

"Uh, these are my friends," Lan went on awkwardly, putting his hand away. Maybe this Shade didn't like shaking hands. Oh well.

"I'm Maylu, and this is Yai," Maylu introduced herself and Yai, patting the smaller girl on the shoulder. "I'm sorry she pointed at you like that."

"But-" Yai began to protest. Maylu gave her a sharp look and she trailed off, muttering.

"I'm Tory." Tory, unlike Lan, simply nodded at the Shade politely.

"Dex, and you'd better remember it, 'cus I'm the best NetBattler in all of Electopia!" Dex declared.

"No you're not," Lan said. "That's me and MegaMan!"

"Yeah, right."

"U-um."

They turned back to the Shade, who had just spoken. Lan honestly wasn't sure whether or not he'd been expecting the Shade to actually speak, but apparently they could, which was perfectly fine because he really didn't want to have a one-sided conversation with someone whose face he couldn't see.

"I'm . . ." The Shade hesitated, looking at each of them in turn, and then went on. "I'm Foreigner. It's . . . it's a codename. Because we can't use our real . . . names. You know."

"That's a cool codename," Maylu complimented the Shade kindly.

Foreigner - and Maylu was right, that was a cool codename - sounded like a boy. Lan wasn't sure about the first Shade, who was still engaged in conversation with the group of scientists.

"What about your friend?" Tory asked Foreigner.

"That's . . . her name's Acrobat," Foreigner replied.

"Wow, I guess all of you guys have cool codenames, huh?" Lan grinned. "Hey, if I was a Shade, what d'you think I'd be called?"

"Lan, I don't think he can actually answer that," Maylu sighed.

"It's a valid question!" he protested.

"You've known him for all of five seconds."

"You'd be called Hero," Foreigner said, unexpectedly. Then he shuffled his feet in embarrassment. "Ah, well, that's . . . what I think. I-I'm not sure. I've heard you saved the world a . . . a few times, so . . . Hero would probably be your codename."

"That's so _cool_!" Lan gushed.

There was something about Foreigner's voice that was somewhat familiar, but Lan just dismissed the thought - he didn't know any Savarons outside of the people in this room, and he certainly didn't know any Shades, or anyone who went by the codename of Foreigner. It was probably just his imagination.

What wasn't his imagination was how uncertain around them Foreigner seemed to be. Lan wasn't the only one to pick that up, as Maylu was being as gentle as she could, and Yai even muttered an apology for pointing a moment later. Tory was his usual nice self, but Dex kept the arrogant declarations down to a minimum in an effort to make Foreigner feel more welcome.

Lan somehow got the impression that maybe Foreigner was a new Shade, and he was still uncertain about how to do stuff. Maybe his friend, Acrobat, was the more experienced partner and was showing him the ropes or something.

Although he was surprised at how . . . well, _small_ Foreigner and his friend were. They were both sort of the same height as Lan - so did that mean they were about the same age, as well? Did the Shades employ pre-teen kids like the NetBattler societies back at home? That would be so cool if they did, maybe Lan could figure out where they were based and ask if they needed an extra hand or two while he was here.

But then he reminded himself that MegaMan was unlikely to be doing any sort of virus busting or whatever, even if he managed to get out of this silent phase. Lan would have to settle for admiring these Shade people from afar, then.

 _Man, MegaMan's gonna be so annoyed that he missed out on meeting these guys,_ Lan thought. The thought was bittersweet, but at least he didn't drag his mood down too much.

"Oi, Foreigner, if you're done kissing your new boyfriend-" Acrobat suddenly called.

"Stop saying stuff like that!" Foreigner exclaimed, whirling around to face her. Lan got the feeling he was probably glaring underneath that helmet.

"How about no," Acrobat replied flatly. "We got a job to do, in case you forgot. Stop yakkin' and get your ass over here. We're jacking in."

Foreigner muttered something under his breath and went over to her side. Acrobat nodded her approval and turned back to Professor Hestia and Dad.

"Any bits of data we need to leave alone?" Acrobat asked. She sounded like she was a pretty rude person, and honestly didn't sound much like a girl to start off with. But Foreigner had said 'she', so Acrobat was definitely a girl.

"It'll be fairly obvious what you need to avoid destroying," Professor Hestia replied. "But just in case, I've prepared a list for you - here. I've also included a map of the entire network, just in case."

"Got it," Acrobat said, taking a small device that looked like a USB stick. She slotted it into a grey thing on one of her gloves (it looked kinda like the download slot for battle chips on a PET, which reminded him - where were their PETs? Didn't the Shades have Navis?) and then handed it over to Foreigner, who repeated the process and then gave it back to Professor Hestia. "Oi, brat, do you know what we're doing or were you too busy-"

"I know what we're doing," Foreigner snapped.

Lan wasn't the only one surprised at his tone. He and his friends had thought that Foreigner was a little shy, but the way he was acting now . . . Maybe it was just meeting new people that made him all uncertain?

"And if you can, find the Navi that was lost when we lost connection to the Area," Dad spoke up. "We don't know exactly where it is at the moment, but hopefully if you fix the network, the Navi will come back on its own - all the same, keep an eye out."

"Gotcha," Acrobat agreed. "On our honour as Shades, we promise."

"We promise," Foreigner echoed.

That was a little strange to say, but maybe it was a Shade thing.

They both headed over to the computer of the scientist who had noticed the problem, and raised their right arms. Only now did Lan notice the strange red gems embedded on the backs of their gloves.

"Jack in, Vital Shade!" Acrobat announced.

"Jack in, Red Shade!" Foreigner said at the same time. The red gems turned out to be sort of like wireless jack-ins, as a red beam of light emerged from the gems and connected to the jack-in port on the computer.

Lan looked at the screen curiously - what kind of names were those, anyway? - and couldn't hold back a gasp of surprise. The Shades' Navis' names were very accurate, as both seemed to be made of what looked like shadows, although they still had the forms of humanoid Navis. Vital Shade was a pale but dark-coloured mass of shadows, and Lan could see pale skin-coloured claws sticking out where the shadows rippled. Red Shade, on the other hand, seemed less . . . otherworldly, even though it too was covered in shadows. Maybe it was because Red Shade was made entirely of dark red shadows, or maybe it was the fact that Red Shade's hands didn't appear to be long, thin claws.

If he had to describe what the shadows looked like, he'd say they kind of resembled that cloak that Bass always wore - except these cloaks covered the Navis' faces and rippled like real shadows.

That . . . was actually pretty awesome.

Foreigner saw Lan looking over his shoulder and shuffled away, tensing up slightly. If Acrobat noticed, she didn't comment, only speaking to their two Navis.

"This'd be easier if we had Golden Shade as well, but we'll have to make do without supersonic flying for this mission," she told them. "Just our luck she got a solo assignment today of all friggin' days . . . A'right, you two, get moving."

"What do you think it could be?" Foreigner asked his friend.

"No clue. Hey, tell your stalker to get lost, he's distracting."

Lan backed away, because he had a feeling that Acrobat would probably hit him if he didn't.

He perked up in surprise when she just walked away from the screen, leaving Foreigner to start tapping away at the keyboard. Acrobat wandered around the room peering at different things, and Lan wondered exactly what she was doing - she was nowhere near her Navi and couldn't tell what was going on on the screen.

Out of curiosity, he looked back at the screen. Vital Shade and Red Shade were making their way through the normal network Areas, occasionally deleting viruses.

"Not that way," Acrobat suddenly said, without even looking up from her inspection of the scanner. "That's just a dead end."

"Try going right instead," Foreigner suggested. Acrobat didn't protest, so the two shadow-cloaked Navis followed his directions.

"How did she know they were going the wrong way?" Maylu wondered quietly, coming up to look over Lan's shoulder at the screen.

Lan just shrugged. Maybe Acrobat was psychic or something.

"We have HUDs on our visors," Foreigner said absently, focusing on the computer screen.

"HUDs?" Lan wondered, half-expecting MegaMan to chime in with an explanation. When nothing happened, he swallowed the sudden wave of sadness that threatened him.

"Like a video game screen," Foreigner explained. "It lets us see what our Navis are doing in the network, along with other things."

"Oh!" Maylu exclaimed. "So your suits are kinda like wearable PETs, then?"

Foreigner paused briefly, and then nodded. "They are," he agreed mildly. Then he focused his attention on the Navis in the network again. "Guys, there's some data files ahead that're pretty important to the Navi Research Labs - don't touch them."

"What does it look like?" Red Shade asked. Its voice - _his_ voice - sounded kinda familiar too, but Lan still couldn't quite put his finger on it.

"It's . . . that collection of data, right there - it's near the red panels," Foreigner told him. "See it? Don't touch it."

"I would assume it is fairly fragile," Vital Shade guessed. Lan was surprised at that Navi's voice - it was monotone, and he couldn't tell whether Vital Shade was male or female from the sound of it.

"You assume correctly," Acrobat said, wandering back over. She poked Foreigner on the shoulder. "What exactly are you trying to do, skunk-boy?"

"Trying to see if I can get into the cut off Area from here," Foreigner replied, not responding to the 'skunk-boy' comment. "Doesn't really hurt to try, but I'm not having too much luck at the moment."

"Mate, this is why we got called in. Stop trying to do what a team of full-grown scientists couldn't do, you dumb chicken nugget."

"I can _try_!" Foreigner cried indignantly as Acrobat shooed him away from the computer.

Acrobat turned to Lan and Maylu next. "You two piss off as well, you're crowding our Navis."

"I do not mind their presence," Vital Shade said.

"I do," Red Shade muttered.

"P- Red Shade," Foreigner hissed.

"Leave," Acrobat demanded, ignoring them.

"But I wanna see what happens!" Lan protested. It was kind of a weak excuse, he knew, but he was also sort of interested to see how the two Shades interacted with their Navis. And if their high-tech suits really were wearable PETs, then he wanted to see how they worked as well.

Acrobat sighed loudly. "Fine," she snapped, turning to the screen. "Vital, put up visuals on the main monitor . . . Do these guys even have one?"

"We do," Professor Hestia answered her. He pointed toward the largest screen in the room, which was next to the scanner. "It's right there."

Acrobat nodded her thanks. "Send visuals to that," she ordered. Once her Navi had done what she'd told it to, she turned her head to Lan and Maylu. He was pretty sure she was glaring at them, even though he couldn't see her face. "Go watch that, you stupid shits."

"That's my son you're talking to," Dad warned her.

"And?"

Dad was momentarily thrown off by her lack of care.

"It's okay, Dad," Lan quickly said as he made his way over to the main monitor. "I don't mind - I get the feeling she's like this with everyone."

"She is," Foreigner confirmed.

"See?" Lan grinned at his dad, who sighed and shook his head fondly.

 **oooo**

It took Red Shade and Vital Shade five minutes to find their way to the cut off Area, using the directions that Foreigner gave them. The entire Area that had been cut off was completely in the dark, nothing but black nothingness dead ahead as the two shadow-cloaked Navis stood on the very edge.

"This seems very foreboding," Red Shade commented, looking around.

"Right?" Foreigner agreed with a small shudder. "It's like there's a ghost in there, waiting to jump out and suck our bodies dry or something . . ."

"You're thinking of vampires, and no," Acrobat said, "there is nothing foreboding about that bit. Let's just go in already."

"Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon," Foreigner muttered.

"Oh, shut up."

The amount of arguing those two did was absurd, but they'd gotten this far, so Lan assumed they were good Shades despite their weirdness.

Vital Shade went into the nothingness first, holding out a thin clawed hand as a sort of guard against anything that would potentially jump out and try to delete them. Red Shade followed cautiously, a red sword formed on one arm and held out to fend off anything that would try to attack from behind.

The moment they went into the cut off Area, the screen went blank. It stayed blank for several moments until Foreigner did something with the computer he was still at, and then suddenly they had the picture back - and finally everyone got to see the cut off Area.

It was covered in black goo. The stuff was everywhere, dripping off datablocks and walls and sticking to the ground and everything, and there wasn't a single panel in the Area that wasn't covered in the stuff. Lan thought he saw movement in the black goo, but he couldn't be certain because all he'd seen was a brief flash of small white eyes.

" . . . That's not good," one of the scientists said.

"That's how the network got cut off?" Tory asked, staring wide-eyed at the screen.

Lan spotted more movement in the distance. It was further away than the small flashes of white he'd seen, but he could tell it was bigger. He still wasn't sure his mind wasn't playing tricks on him though.

"Okay, I definitely saw something moving that time," Yai said loudly. "There, see?"

So he hadn't been the only one to see it. Good to know.

Not exactly very reassuring, but good to know.

"It looks kinda like a cat," Maylu muttered to Lan.

"I bet it doesn't act like one," he replied. "If it can cut off a whole Area of a network like this, it must be powerful. Maybe it's like the Life virus?"

Maylu shuddered. "Oh, man, I hope not," she said.

"Get closer but don't engage," Acrobat told her and Foreigner's Navis. Then she muttered something about ink, which made no sense and only served to confuse Lan.

Though that black goo did kind of look like ink.

The two Shade Navis crept forward, switching positions - Red Shade now in front with his red sword and Vital Shade gracefully flowing behind him without a sound. More little white eyes moved around in the black goo, more obvious now that Lan knew he wasn't crazy for spotting them, but Red Shade and Vital Shade steered clear of them.

"This doesn't make sense," Arin muttered. She was standing a few feet away to Lan's right, but didn't seem to be talking to anyone in particular - a quick look told Lan that she was actually speaking to a PET. "There's too much goo for just one."

"I hope this doesn't mean what I think it means," a deep voice from inside the PET replied quietly. Arin's Navi, Lan guessed. "They didn't see any Inklings in the rest of the network."

"Be prepared to jack in at any moment," Arin told her Navi. He murmured his acknowledgement.

What were 'Inklings'? Those little white eyes, maybe?

On the screen, the two Navis had crept around to where they could see the thing that the big white eyes belonged to. The room collectively held its breath as the virus responsible for the network being cut off was revealed.

"Well . . . shit," Acrobat said when she caught sight of it.

"That's an Inky," Professor Hestia said blankly. "There's . . . there's an Inky virus in our network."

Lan and Maylu exchanged worried glances. From the sound of it, this 'Inky' virus was quite possibly on the same level as the Life virus, although the Life virus was beatable. The way the Savarons in the room were reacting, it seemed as though the Inky was actually even worse, even though its name didn't exactly inspire terror like the Life virus's did.

"Perfect," Acrobat complained. "Just perfect. The first assigned mission we get and we're not even qualified for it."

"I can do you one even better," Foreigner spoke up. He sounded like he was being lightly strangled.

"What?"

Foreigner turned around and looked at her.

"There's two of them," he announced.

 **OOOOOO**

OOOH SHIT THEY'RE ALL SCREWED.

You know how I said we'd be seeing the Inkys again? Yup, this is what I meant. And not only do they have to take on one Inky, there's actually two! So, indeed, they are basically completely and utterly screwed. Good thing Arin's there, am I right?

Hey who wants to guess who Acrobat and Foreigner are? I think it's fairly obvious, especially with their Navis.

I also promised an entire chapter of Lan, and that's what we got.

Anyway, moving on from that!

You guys remember last chapter, when I was showing off all the leaders' Navis' basic attacks? Well, I wanted to explain some of them.

I know I've already sort of explained them - or at least their concepts - but a few of them were actually inspired by other things that have nothing to do with MegaMan Battle Network.

An example - you know Mythril's Ice Crash? That's actually based on the Bewilderbeast's ice breath from _How To Train Your Dragon 2_. The effect is basically the same, except the ice breath is more like an actual laser rather than just actual breath, because let's not forget that Mythril is a NetNavi even if she's a giant wyvern/dragon.

Woodchip's Vine Crash is based on one version of Frenzy Plant from the _Pokemon_ game series. It's actually mostly from the anime-trailers for the _Black_ and _White 2_ games, because I really think giant vines/roots bursting up from the ground and attacking everything in sight is just the coolest thing ever. Way better than the game's tree thing, which was actually what the original Tree Crash was based on.

There's also Racket's Boom Blast, which is kind of like Boomburst - also from _Pokemon_.

The only two whose basic attacks weren't based off anything (that I know of) are Livid and Jackal's attacks, since Livid's is literally 'burn everything to the ground' and Jackal's is pretty much 'killer sarcophagi'.

But yeah, I just wanted to throw that out there, cus I wanted you guys to know how I came up with some of these basic attacks.

Read and review!


	14. Chapter 14 - The Inky Incident, Part 2

For continuity's sake, we'll be continuing with Lan's POV, but if I manage to, I'll switch to Chaud's POV later in the chapter.

Hey, who wants to bet that Acrobat and Foreigner are gonna do the stupid thing and try to take on both Inkys at once?

Profiles!

/022fbi8b2zj7

Zoet.

/01ndi1falgd8

Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

Flight.

/026mkj34tsh1

The map.

/01lqxk014x6q

And the battle suit.

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

Let's get straight into this. I love cliffhangers, but they always make next-chapter ANs seem really tacky.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"Well," Arin muttered, "I guess we know how the Area got cut off."

Lan glanced at her questioningly. "What do you mean?"

"An Inky virus generally makes its nest in an Area of any network," the crazy scientist explained. "They're pests, but very dangerous pests, and usually you can see the signs of when one is trying to move into a network - there's usually Inklings everywhere and you can find black goo all over the place, mostly concentrated in the Inky's nest. Normally, one Inky on its own isn't enough to shut down an entire Area of a network, but with two Inkys at once . . ."

Lan's eyes widened. This was even worse than he'd thought - forget the Life virus, these Inky things were definitely worse!

At the same time, Acrobat and Foreigner had gotten into a heated argument about whether or not to try and take on the two viruses without any assistance. Acrobat seemed to be going for withdrawing and getting reinforcements, but Foreigner was of the opposite opinion.

"If we leave them as they are, it'll just get worse!" he argued. "We don't have _time_ to go and get reinforcements!"

"Are you suicidal as well as stupid?" Acrobat snapped. "You're the smart one, think it over - we can't take on _one_ Inky, nevermind two of the damn things!"

"Arin is _right there_ , we don't even need to-"

"We have a cover to maintain and a secret to keep, unless you wanna end up outing everything we've worked for over the past few decades!"

"Is keeping a secret really more important than _this_?" Foreigner demanded, gesturing to the situation on-screen.

"It's not just about a _secret_ , you fucking idiot, it's about _trust_!"

"That's enough, both of you," Arin said sharply.

Acrobat and Foreigner stopped arguing immediately, though they continued to look at each other through their helmets. Lan got the feeling there was a very intense glaring contest going on there.

Arin's interruption in their argument reminded Lan a little bit of how his mom had stopped himself and his friends from arguing with Chaud. He suddenly thought of both of them now - Mom, who had decided to go out and find some ingredients for a proper home-cooked meal tonight, and Chaud, who was off doing god-knows-what.

Maybe if Chaud were here and MegaMan uninjured, Lan could do something about this situation. ProtoMan and MegaMan working together could overcome pretty much any challenge that was thrown at them - they were among the most powerful Navis on the entire planet. They could take on both of those Inky things and beat them.

But Chaud wasn't here and so neither was ProtoMan, and MegaMan was injured, so there was nothing Lan could do.

His friends were still here, though.

"Guys," he said, turning to face them.

Maylu and the others were wearing identical looks of grim determination. They already knew what he was going to ask.

"We know," Maylu agreed. She raised her voice to the two Shades. "Hey, if you'll let us, we can help out too!"

"No way in hell, pinkie," Acrobat snapped, whirling around to look at them. "If we're not qualified then you guys ain't either."

"At least let them try," Foreigner suggested.

Acrobat looked at him over her shoulder. "You want your friends' Navis to get deleted, too?" she snapped.

Lan was almost about to ask her what she meant by 'friends', but he supposed that was because he and his friends had been really nice to Foreigner to try and make him feel welcome. And, as everyone told him, he was pretty famous for making friends with almost everyone, faceless secret NetBattlers included.

"I'll help out, everyone else can get out," Arin announced. She gestured to the team of scientists still in the room. "You guys, get everything you can off the network and then leave - I'll need some of you to go and warn everyone else in this building as well. The entire network is in danger here, we can't take any chances. We may need to delete the network in order to save it." She waited a moment to make sure her orders were being followed, and then turned back to Acrobat and Foreigner.

Meanwhile, Lan was in shock. Delete an entire network to save it? Not even in Electopia had things ever gotten this bad.

"Maybe we shouldn't try to help, if it's this serious," Tory said, a worried frown on his face.

"Oh please, we've been through way worse than this," Yai scoffed.

" _Lan's_ been through worse than this," Maylu corrected her. "We only helped out most of the time. Now we don't have MegaMan, and our Navis are nowhere near as powerful."

"I'm sorry," Lan and, surprisingly, Dex said at the same time.

They both looked at each other.

"You've got nothing to be sorry for," they both said, once again in unison.

"Alright, quit it, I thought MegaMan was your twin, not Dex," Yai said irritably.

Lan rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment while Dex laughed awkwardly.

"Get back! Get back now!"

Foreigner's voice, raised in panic, brought them back to their current situation abruptly.

They turned to the screen and froze in horror when they saw Red Shade trying to jump away from one of the Inkys - a giant, black, dripping mess that resembled some sort of demonic white-eyed cat - which kept chasing after him. It moved slowly but it was somehow able to keep up with him, easily flowing up datablocks that Red Shade tried to get on top of in order to escape from it. The way it moved so easily probably had something to do with the goo that was all over the place.

A quick glance at Vital Shade showed them that it wasn't doing much better, although the Inky that was going after it appeared to be more curious than hostile, unlike Red Shade's Inky, which was definitely trying to delete him. Lan would've wondered why the Inky going after Vital Shade was acting differently, but he didn't have the time.

"Battle chips don't work on these things," Acrobat snapped, as Foreigner reached for a small pack that was attached to a black belt on his waist. "That's why most Navis can't go after them - you need to delete them in one hit in order to get rid of them completely, otherwise they'll just keep regenerating over and over until your Navi's nothing more than burnt data on the net. Most basic attacks can't do even a hundred hit points' worth of damage, forget the amount of hit points these things have!"

"There has to be something we can do!" Foreigner protested.

"Jackal's making his way over there as fast as he can, but I don't know how long it'll be before he can make it," Arin told them. "Just run them around until he shows up."

The Inkys on the screen suddenly started spitting black acid that burnt everything it came in contact with.

"Acid Fire!" Acrobat warned her Navi sharply.

"Do not let it touch you, Red Shade," Vital Shade said. Lan almost wondered if its AI was as low as GravityMan's - it certainly didn't _sound_ very worried, despite the danger it and Red Shade were currently in.

"I kinda figured that out for myself," Red Shade replied, pausing briefly to stare at a spray of acid that was eating through some data that had probably been important at one point, but was now nothing more than a sizzling husk.

Now that the Inkys were spitting acid everywhere, Lan could understand why these things were so dangerous to Navis. If it was true that battle chips didn't work on them and they could regenerate at will, then whoever or whatever had created these viruses obviously made them for purely destructive purposes. Although he had to wonder - if these things were so dangerous, what about other Savaron viruses? Most countries had the same sets, more or less, but from he'd seen it looked as though Savaro was on an entirely different level to the rest of the planet.

"Those Inky things are creepy," Maylu muttered, shuddering a little. "They don't make a sound, and they're just as dangerous as the Life virus."

"I know what you mean," Lan agreed quietly. "At least with most viruses they roar or scream or whatever. These things just . . . stare."

"What're you kids still doing here?" Arin's voice cut into their conversation, and they looked up to find her looking at them with a frown. "I told everyone to get out. That includes you."

"We thought we could help," Maylu explained, but Acrobat's scornful voice interrupted her.

"I already said, if we're not qualified for this shit, then there's no way in hell any of you morons're gonna be of any use," she snapped. "Stop offering to help - or better yet, just get lost already. You're making it hard for either of us to concentrate here."

"Z- Acrobat," Foreigner protested weakly.

"What, you think I haven't noticed? You're uncomfortable as hell around those idiots, and if this keeps up, Red's gonna get his ass deleted and who'll be to blame?"

 _Why would Foreigner be uncomfortable around us?_ Lan wondered. Judging from what Acrobat said, Foreigner was only uncomfortable around Lan and his friends - no one else.

But Foreigner had called him a hero! And they'd been nothing but nice to him since he'd shown up, so why?

"I'm not uncomfortable," Foreigner muttered, shifting from one foot to the other. Even Lan could tell he was lying through his teeth - his body language just _screamed_ uncomfortable.

Acrobat clearly thought the same thing. "And the Sun Pyramid's are bright pink," she retorted. "Just keep an eye on your Navi and get on with the-"

She broke off abruptly. For a moment Lan couldn't understand why, but then he spared a glance at the screen and his eyes widened.

Apart from the two giant Inkys, there were tons of little versions of them - Inklings, he guessed - and they were everywhere. They'd crept up on the shadow-cloaked Navis as thy had been dodging around the two Inkys, unable to do much because their operators had gotten into an argument and couldn't give them any proper orders, and now the Inklings were trying to swarm them.

Vital Shade had reacted very quickly and had shot off with unnerving grace towards the entrance of the goo-filled nest, but Red Shade, who had been taken off-guard and had accidentally allowed himself to get surrounded in every single direction (even above and below), had no such luck and was currently attempting to fight the Inklings off with two swords.

"Blade Cyclone!" Foreigner quickly ordered.

Blade what?

Red Shade began to spin, his form taking on that of a whirling red cyclone - again, very familiar, and a sneaking suspicion began to form in Lan's mind - and he began blowing away all the Inklings near him.

But there were far too many. Whenever he blew away some, even more would take their place, forming up out of the surrounding black goo endlessly. The only way to stop the things from showing up completely would be to get rid of the black goo, but it was pretty clear the only way to do _that_ would be to delete the Inkys themselves. Which was apparently impossible.

One of the Inkys decided to have a go at coming after Red Shade, and unlike its Inkling creations, it didn't seem to notice the Blade Cyclone at all. It just sort of flowed towards him, and then its head tilted - dripping ink all the time, and the tilt was more of a weird spasm than an actual, well, movement.

And then it spat acid into the cyclone.

A split second later, an ear-splitting scream filled the air - and notably Foreigner's head, as he twitched violently and tried to rip his helmet off with a yelp (Acrobat quickly stopped him) - and then Blade Cyclone died down so abruptly that, had Red Shade been a human, he probably would've ended up with a limb ripped off.

But he was a Navi and so only ended up being flung away from the crowd of ink viruses, bouncing along the ground and coming to a stop in a tangle of limbs at the edge of the cut-off network. For a moment Lan wasn't sure where he'd been hit, but then Red Shade struggled to his feet and lifted his head.

His face had been burnt off.

There were more injuries too, more burns where the acid had hit him, but the worst was his face. He made a sound that was almost like a choke, and collapsed again. There was a moment of shocked silence, and then it was broken by Foreigner.

"PROTO-" he began to scream.

Acrobat kicked his legs out from under him, and then spoke to her own Navi while he crashed to the floor beside her. "Vital, get him outta there, now!" she snapped.

On the screen, her Navi nodded to confirm its order, and then it began to move swiftly over to where Red Shade was. Red Shade himself was glitching heavily, the way that Navis did when they were mere moments from full deletion.

The Inkys and their Inklings were also flowing over to him, but moments before they reached the two Navis, a massive bolt of lightning pushed them back. When the lightning vanished, a large black dog-like Navi jumped from out of nowhere and snarled at the viruses, a clear warning to keep back.

Without taking his eyes off the viruses, he called back to Vital Shade. "Is he alright?"

"His data is damaged too heavily to move him without the risk of deletion," Vital Shade reported emotionlessly. Lan was beginning to think there was something seriously wrong with that Navi.

The black dog-Navi muttered a curse and glanced up, out of the screen and directly at Arin.

Lan realised with a start that he was probably her Navi.

"What do we do?" he demanded. "I can get rid of one of these things easy enough, but two and a few hundred Inklings is far beyond my power. We'd need someone like Mythril or Livid if we wanted to make a dent in these damn things!"

"Jackal, just try and keep them back for now," Arin told him. The dog-Navi nodded and shot a bolt of lightning at a few Inklings that had tried to slip past him to the injured Navi and the creepy Navi that was trying to help him.

While the two Inkys paused and studied Jackal as if he was some sort of particularly interesting piece of data, Vital Shade was trying to give Red Shade some recovery chip data - but the acid had burnt Red Shade too much and whatever it had done, it had made Red Shade unable to accept any chip data.

"Oi," Acrobat said abruptly, nudging Foreigner with a none-too-gentle foot. "Try giving Red some recovery chips, mine aren't working."

Foreigner, still sitting on the floor where he'd crashed after Acrobat had kicked him, nodded and picked out a battle chip from the pack on his belt.

"Please let this work," he whispered desperately, and then he downloaded the chip into the silver bit on his wrist.

A moment passed by, and absolutely nothing happened. Red Shade continued to glitch and Vital Shade stepped back, glancing up at its operator.

"What do we do?" it asked. Seriously, that monotone voice was freaking Lan out. Even GravityMan hadn't been this bad.

It took another moment for Acrobat to reply. "Fix his data," she eventually ordered.

Vital Shade actually stiffened at that, its clawed hands curling slightly. That was the only sign of its discomfort, though.

"That method is untested on other Navis," it replied. "I am only able to do it with my sister because she is my twin, and her data is still fundamentally similar to my own despite the virus data within me."

"Try it anyway," Acrobat told it.

"Red Shade has no relation to my data whatsoever," Vital Shade protested tonelessly. "He is not even a Savaron Navi. I have doubts that this would work on him."

"Shove your doubts up your nonexistent ass and _help him_ ," Acrobat barked.

Vital Shade continued to stare at her in silence for a few moments, and then, after an eternity, it nodded once and turned back to Red Shade. It began to open up various windows and screens around its injured friend and began tapping at them, dismissing and calling up new windows as it needed. Occasionally it would draw some data from the windows and screens and try to give it to Red Shade, whose glitching body was still refusing to accept any help given.

Acrobat's Navi paused, and then tilted its head. It reached down and took hold of something inside Red Shade's chest with the tips of its claws - presumably a NaviMark, though Lan couldn't see one through the shadow-cloak. Data sparked between the invisible NaviMark and Vital Shade's clawed hand, and then died down.

Vital Shade was still for a moment, and then it went back to work on the windows. It eventually took some more data from the windows and attempted to give it to Red Shade, who actually accepted it this time. Whatever Vital Shade had done with the data sparks had fixed whatever had prevented Red Shade from accepting any helpful data.

Satisfied, Vital Shade dismissed most of the windows except for three of them, all of which it used to draw data from and give to Red Shade. Gradually, Red Shade's burns began to heal and fix themselves, and eventually all that was left was his face - which Vital Shade focused all three windows on, leaning over Red Shade for better focus.

Meanwhile, Jackal was still trying to fend off the Inkys and their Inklings, with varying degrees of success. He was managing to hold the majority of the viruses back, but one or two managed to slip behind his defence and dodge around his blasts of lightning when he tried to get at them. One of the Inkys flowed forwards and Jackal's gaze snapped right to it, eyes narrowed dangerously.

"Electro Tomb!" he shouted, snapping out a hand to point at it.

Four weird-looking tombs rose up around the Inky, which looked at them with no expression. Jackal gestured and the tombs sprang open, and then let loose four massive bolts of electricity that held the Inky in place and electrocuted it. Jackal sent a couple of electric balls at the virus just to make sure the damage was being done, and to Lan's shock, the Inky began to dissolve into decaying pixels.

But the Electro Tomb took up a lot of Jackal's attention, and he was forced to allow the other Inky and several more Inklings past him before he could fully delete the Inky in his Tombs.

Vital Shade snapped up its head to look at the incoming Inky, but it couldn't tear itself away from its work on Red Shade's data. It got its feet under itself - Lan caught a brief glimpse of flesh-coloured talons - but before it could do anything, a massive thorn-covered vine erupted out of the ground and whipped around at everything in front of it.

Three more vines joined the first as everyone stared in amazement (not to mention relief for the Shades and Arin, who seemed to know what was going on, and confusion for Lan and his friends, who had absolutely no idea what was going on), and they began whipping at every single Inkling in sight. The remaining Inky vanished into the black goo and reappeared far away from the thrashing vines, peering at them blankly.

"What moron doesn't check their networks for Inkys?" an entirely new voice demanded.

Another Navi dropped from above, this time a green and brown squirrel-like Navi, who didn't look too happy. He seemed to be directing the vines with flicks of his hands and bushy tail, deleting Inklings at a very rapid pace.

"Woodchip," Jackal greeted him, relieved. "I didn't think you were coming."

"I almost didn't," the squirrel-Navi, Woodchip, confessed resentfully. "Mythril's on my case about her 'shinies' again, you know how she gets. I convinced her the lives of our operatives are more important than things she can easily get herself."

"She's gonna bite your head off later," Jackal commented.

"Oh, yes, but at least I can delete a few Inklings and their Inky boss before I myself get deleted at the claws of a forty-foot dragon," Woodchip huffed.

"You do realise we are still in a tremendous amount of danger," Vital Shade called.

"Zip it," Woodchip snapped.

He turned towards the Inky that was still watching him with what would've been a wary expression had it not been so horribly blank and drippy, and then gestured. At once the vines vanished, but the Inky and its Inkling minions didn't get a chance to move before eight more vines burst out of the ground all over the place, surrounding them. The vines, at Woodchip's direction, began whipping and shredding all over the place, and fairly soon all of the Inklings were gone and the Inky was nothing more than bits of black goo struggling to put itself back together.

Woodchip looked at it with a disgusted expression and brought his hand down as if he was slapping something. A vine crashed down on the remains of the Inky and started grinding into it, and then a burst of decaying pixels signified that the Inky had finally been deleted.

Almost at once, the black goo in the cut off Area began to disappear as if it had never been there before, but there was so much of it that it was pretty obvious it would take a few days at most to completely vanish.

"There was a Navi in there, before the Area was cut off," Arin suddenly spoke up. "Can you hear it?"

Jackal looked around, searching with his ears pricked, and then nodded. He bounded off in a seemingly-random direction while Woodchip glanced over his shoulder to check on Vital Shade's progress with Red Shade, and then Jackal came back a few moments later with a standard Navi held over his shoulder.

"He's the only Navi I could find," Jackal reported. "If there were any others, they've been deleted by now."

In all the panic, Lan had honestly forgotten the Navi. He was pretty sure Acrobat and Foreigner had forgotten as well, but then again, it wasn't really their fault. Things happened and it was pretty understandable that they couldn't keep track of everything.

Looking at them now, he was actually surprised to see Acrobat crouching beside Foreigner, who was just sitting quietly. If she was trying to comfort him, she was doing it weirdly - she wasn't even touching him, just muttering to him. Lan almost wondered why they weren't at the screen, trying to talk to their Navis, but then he remembered that they had those HUD things on their helmets and they could see their Navis anyway.

Acrobat stopped muttering for a moment, and Foreigner said something too quiet for anyone but her to hear. She nodded, stood up, and walked over to Arin while he slowly got to his feet.

"Where's the recovery place here?" she asked.

"There'll be no one there, I ordered an evacuation," Arin reminded her.

"Vital can figure out how to use the equipment."

Arin considered that, and then nodded. "Go back to the lobby and then go through the grey door. Go left at the first turn in the corridor and then keep going until you get to a door labelled Recovery Unit."

Acrobat nodded, and glanced at Foreigner, who had come up behind her while she was talking. In unison, they raised their hands to the computer that everything had started from, and jacked out their Navis. They left without a word to anyone else.

Arin waited until the doors had closed before sighing and stretching her arms above her head. " _Man_ ," she said, "that was insane. Never thought an Inky would get into this network. Never thought _two_ would get in, either."

"Apparently the network has holes we didn't know about," Jackal agreed, with a glance at Woodchip.

Woodchip sighed. "I suppose that's my job," he said. "As if I don't have enough to do with special assignments and normal missions and everything else."

"I thought you enjoyed looking for holes in firewalls."

"Yes," Woodchip admitted, "I do. But not when I have a million other things to do."

And without so much as a goodbye, the squirrel-Navi vanished. Now the only Navi left in the network was Jackal, along with the unconscious Navi, but Arin soon fixed that by jacking them both out.

"Oh, I forgot you guys were even here," she said, upon spotting Lan and his friends. "Uh, ignore everything you just saw. And heard."

"Arin, you are an idiot," Jackal sighed.

"Ah, shut up," Arin replied cheerfully. "Right, now where's that lady, I need to give her back her Navi . . ."

Arin left the room next, leaving Lan and his friends still standing there, completely bewildered.

" . . . I'm not even sure what I just saw," Yai eventually admitted.

"Me neither," Tory agreed.

Lan, on the other hand, was too busy with his own thoughts to join in. He kept going over everything despite what Arin had just told them to do, replaying every single word and action and trying to piece everything together. He just knew there was something going on here, and he needed to figure it out - he had a feeling it was important. Very, very important.

 _I only know one Navi with a move called Blade Cyclone,_ he thought, mind whirling. _Red Shade's voice was familiar to me, just like Foreigner's, but both of them sounded different so I couldn't be sure. And yet, when Red Shade got hit by the acid . . ._

 _"PROTO-"_

 _"Vital, get him outta there, now!"_

Not Red Shade. Not even just Red. Proto.

 _Proto . . . as in ProtoMan?_ Lan wondered.

And if Red Shade really was who he thought he was, then that had to make Foreigner who Lan thought _he_ was, as well.

 _I know exactly what you've been up to now, Chaud,_ he thought.

 **oooo**

"Are you sure you're alright?" Chaud asked again.

"Yes, I'm fine," ProtoMan replied patiently. "There are no traces of the Acid Fire in my programming, and Virus's healing method held off the worst of the damage before the Recovery Unit's machines were used to fix everything else. Really, Chaud, I'm perfectly fine."

Chaud had asked the exact same question at least three times every five minutes for the past two hours. He didn't feel like going back to the Haven District just yet, but he wasn't going to hang around the Underground NetBattler's HQ when Zoet had already gone back home. She had seemed mildly reluctant to leave him, but Chaud had insisted - and now he was regretting it, because at least with her there he didn't have to deal with people trying to talk to him constantly.

It seemed that every Savaron-native operative wanted to know what it was like to live in a different country, and Chaud was vaguely uncomfortable with the fascinated looks he kept getting. With Zoet around, he could ignore the worst of it because everyone tended to avoid her (for very obvious reasons), but without her there, there was no one to stop the operatives from hounding him.

So he'd left, and his feet had somehow taken him to a park that was themed somewhat like an archeological dig in the Historical District. He was sitting against a tree with his PET propped up on his lap, ignoring everything around him in favour of constantly checking on his Navi.

"You're absolutely sure?" Chaud had to wonder whether or not he was annoying ProtoMan with all this, but ProtoMan had been nothing but patient and hadn't shown any signs of being annoyed at Chaud's constant need to be reassured that he wasn't about to burst into pixels spontaneously.

"One hundred percent," ProtoMan answered. "No trace of the Acid Fire. Look."

He pulled up his stats once again - he'd done that every few minutes just to give Chaud some extra reassurance, but it wasn't helping at all.

"No viruses, no Acid Fire, no missing data, nothing out of the ordinary," ProtoMan reported, swiping through the data to show Chaud.

"What's that?" Chaud asked, suddenly noticing something he hadn't before. There was a little glitch in one of the stat files, mostly around the core data. The thought of ProtoMan's core data being corrupted made Chaud's heart skip a beat and he almost felt like he couldn't breathe for a moment.

"That's nothing to worry about," ProtoMan calmly said. "Virus explained that the healing method it used sometimes causes minor glitches in Flight's systems, and it guessed the same thing applies for me. The glitches will vanish in a few hours."

ProtoMan's matter-of-fact tone actually managed to calm Chaud's worries a little bit, but not completely.

"And . . . and you're certain there's nothing else?" he asked.

"Completely," his Navi replied.

Chaud tore his eyes away from his PET and leaned back against the tree, looking up at the rocky ceiling of the massive cavern way above his head.

"That . . . that's good," he mumbled.

"It is, yes," ProtoMan agreed. He was silent for a moment. "Chaud . . . are _you_ alright?"

Chaud glanced down at the PET's screen. ProtoMan was frowning, clearly just as worried about Chaud as he was about ProtoMan.

"I'm fine," he replied automatically.

"Right," ProtoMan said disbelievingly. "Now give me the answer that wasn't conditioned into you by your father."

Chaud winced and tried to hide the flash of anxiety he felt, but ProtoMan was better at reading him than just about everyone else he called friends.

"You're not fine," ProtoMan went on quietly. "I'm the one who was injured, but you felt the pain just as much as if you'd been hurt too, didn't you?"

"I . . . I wasn't actually hurt . . ."

"I'm not talking about physical pain," ProtoMan said bluntly. "Chaud-"

"Can we drop it?" Chaud asked, somewhat desperately. "Please? I-I don't wanna walk about this."

ProtoMan just looked at him in silence for a moment, and then he finally nodded. "Okay then," he agreed grudgingly. "But this won't stop me from being worried about you."

"Yeah, I know." Chaud held back a smile.

The sudden sound of footsteps heading in his direction made him look up, and he sat up in surprise when he saw that Zoet was making her way over to him. She stopped in front of him, raising an eyebrow and frowning down at him.

"You like grass, or something?" she asked.

" . . . I'm just sitting down," Chaud defended himself, mildly confused. "I wasn't aware that was a crime."

"It is when you're probably sitting on dead bodies."

" _What_?"

He jumped up, disgusted, and hopped off the spot he'd been sitting on for the past couple of hours. Then he heard a quiet snigger and turned to glare at Zoet.

"Only an idiot would fall for that," she said, still smirking. "If there were actual dead bodies here, they wouldn't let five-year-olds play on top of them."

"Technically speaking, the entire Earth is full of fossilised commodities - dinosaurs, people, plant life, dung, and so on," Virus spoke up. "So your prank may actually end up being true, if we dug deep enough into the ground."

"Thanks," Chaud muttered. "I really needed to know that."

"You are welcome."

It was really difficult to tell whether or not Virus was being sarcastic in return.

"What're you doing here, anyway?" Chaud asked Zoet, deciding to just ignore everything Virus had said. "I thought you went home."

"Evidently I didn't," Zoet replied. "But since HQ has yet to assign you a proper email address for the Underground NetBattlers - the lazy shits - I'm here to deliver a message."

"And that is . . .?"

"In light of the shitshow that was today," Zoet informed him, "Mom managed to convince Kris to give us our day off a little early. Well, I say 'convinced', but all she did was ask and Kris was perfectly fine with it."

"Wait, what?" Chaud asked, blinking in confusion. "What do you mean, 'a little early'?"

"Usually operatives in school or any form of education have one day off a week - that day is either Saturday or Sunday, depending on what school or college or whatever the operative goes to," Zoet explained. "Mine is usually on Saturday, unless something like this happens, and then it'll either be earlier or later. So we got tomorrow off, be happy."

"And . . . you came all this way to tell me that?" Chaud said, somewhat incredulously.

"No, actually. Remember way back when I was giving you that tour? I showed you my house but we didn't have time to check it out cus Kris likes whirlwind tours for some stupid reason?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I thought I'd invite you over so I can show off how awesome my literal treehouse is," Zoet informed him. "You have no say in this, by the way. Agree or die."

"She is not being serious," Virus spoke up, with a sigh. "You do have a choice. Zoet would just like to invite you over because she wishes to keep an eye on you after today."

"Shut up, dammit," Zoet hissed.

"You're worried about me?" Chaud asked, unable to resist the amused grin that spread on his face.

"I will stab you with a blunt knife," Zoet threatened.

"You're a giant softie," Chaud teased her gleefully.

Zoet growled and ProtoMan coughed pointedly.

"Chaud, perhaps you shouldn't antagonise someone who can put a grown man in hospital," he advised.

"Aw, come on," Chaud protested half-heartedly. When ProtoMan failed to be amused, he shook his head. "Sometimes you're too serious, and other times you're the exact opposite. You need to make up your mind." He glanced at Zoet. "Are you gonna wake me up at ungodly hours again, or do I get to wake up on my own tomorrow?"

"Why do we have this conversation every time we have a day off?" Zoet muttered. "No, you dumbass, I will not break into your room and wake you up at the asscrack of dawn. I'll be waiting for you at the Jungle Station, be there at nine. Or nine-thirty, whatever floats your boat."

"I'll be there at nine," Chaud said, suspecting that, whatever she said, showing up at nine-thirty was probably not a good idea.

 **OOOOOO**

This entire chapter was awesome to write, mainly because I got to do it almost entirely from Lan's POV and leave behind a whole bunch of clues for him and his friends to figure out.

Hey, in case anyone didn't get it, Acrobat and Foreigner are Zoet and Chaud.

So yeah anyway, ProtoMan gets hit by an Inky's Acid Fire and gets his face burnt off, and it turns out Virus has a secret healing method that goes really well with his hacker-level skills of virus bullshit. And next chapter we get to see the inside of Zoet's house, and I get to write a few scenes that I've had rolling around in my head for a while!

Moving on from this, and going on to something completely different, I've finished the _Team Colonel_ playthrough from ZEROthefirst (that's the YouTuber whose name I couldn't be bothered to remember) and I'm now halfway through the playthrough of _Team ProtoMan_ , which has been recorded by his friend, whose YouTube name I can't remember simply because it's very complicated.

As I was going through his playthrough of _Team Colonel_ , I guess ZERO kinda grew on me, and his recording style - while being very different from RoahmMythril's and definitely not as thorough (he didn't show any post-game content, though I'm not sure whether or not there even is any post-game content for the fifth game) - is actually relatively funny.

Now, his buddy, on the other hand, is utterly hilarious. Literally every line he comes out with just has me giggling in my seat, and even though it's still not as thorough as RoahmMythril, I'm actually enjoying watching his playthrough.

In other words, I've now sort of watched the first five games, leaving only the sixth one after I've finished the _Team ProtoMan_ playthrough. I've heard that Lan leaves DenTech City at the very start of the sixth game, so since he still lives in DenTech in this fic, I'm gonna set the time for this as between the fifth and sixth games.

Before I said that I was keeping it all vague as to when this fic takes place, but that was basically just because I hadn't watched all of the playthroughs of the games yet. Since I've watched almost all of them and I now have a better idea of what happens in the gameworld, this fic now finally has a time.

Read and review!


	15. Chapter 15 - Zoet's Treehouse

Man, what chapter are we on now? Hold I need to . . . Fifteen? So that means I've written fourteen full chapters already? Jesus shit christ and I was only planning for like twenty . . . or at the very least I was thinking I'd write twenty with all the plot I was making up . . .

I guess some of my scenes take longer to do than I thought? Or they take up more space, whatever.

Holy hell I'm mildly impressed.

Moving on, profiles!

/022fbi8b2zj7

Zoet.

/01ndi1falgd8

Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

Flight.

/026mkj34tsh1

The map.

/01lqxk014x6q

And the battle suit.

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

I'm planning on having a mixture of random weirdness and the odd bit of Chaud-angst in this, because who doesn't love the egghead-angst. He's adorable and he's my favourite and I enjoy torturing adorable favourites for some reason.

It's a thing. A very amusing thing which is also heartwrenching at the exact same time because dear god do I write some horrible shit for this poor little brat.

Also we're gonna start right in Zoet's house because I can't be bothered to come up with any scenes for the start of the chapter, otherwise I'll risk having Chaud get into an argument/begging match with Lan and everyone else (who are still ignoring him).

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"Take off your shoes," Zoet ordered.

Chaud, who had been busy peering curiously around the foyer of Zoet's home, glanced at her over his shoulder. She'd just closed the front door and was lifting one leg almost lazily to remove one shoe, and then the other, casually showing off her amazing balance. She then dumped them in a heap on a long mat next to the wall.

"Shoes. Off. Now," Zoet said, when he didn't move.

"Uh, right," he said.

He was left with only his socks, which Zoet said nothing about, so he assumed it was fine to keep them on. The floor kinda felt weirdly springy beneath his feet as he followed Zoet through the house - tree mansion, whatever - and he suddenly had a vision of walking on an actual tree, which probably would've explained the weird feeling. He still wasn't entirely sure which was more prominent, the tree or the mansion, but it was pretty cool all the same.

Well, at least the exterior of the mansion was like that. The interior was more like an actual mansion - not unlike his own house, but there was definitely a more . . . woody feel to this place. Sort of like an oversized cabin.

Zoet gave him a brief tour of the mansion (or as brief as it could get, considering this was one the largest houses in the entire city, according to Zoet and her Navis), explaining where things were and giving him a short look-in on some of the rooms. Among the rooms that she showed him was the living room, which was a large but cosy room with an ornate fireplace that seemed to be made of oak or something. Chaud decided he liked that room if only because it felt strangely warm, and not just because of the fireplace (which was electronic, ironically enough, but the fire it created was most certainly real). It actually seemed lived in.

In fact, the entire house seemed lived in. It was quite a startling contrast to his own house, where he would try to spend as little time as possible.

Another huge difference between his house and Zoet's was the lack of servants.

"You guys don't hire any servants?" he asked, as Zoet took him through a small library.

She gave him a strange look. "Why would we?"

"Uh . . ." He honestly had no idea how to respond to that.

"Chaud has servants at his house," ProtoMan explained, seeing his operator's struggle.

" _Our_ house," Chaud corrected him.

"We have servants at our house," his Navi agreed. Chaud could hear the smile in his voice and had to fight to stop the grin spreading on his own face. "They're hired to do whatever work is necessary - like cleaning, cooking-"

"I know what servants are," Zoet cut him off. "I'm just wondering why your operator apparently thinks all rich people need them."

"I never said that!" Chaud protested indignantly. "It's . . . just that I'm used to servants, is all. And, well, so is Yai."

"Electopia is weird," Zoet decided.

"But then, how do you keep a house this big and this complicated clean?" Chaud wondered. "How do you do _anything_?"

"My mom's an inventor, remember. She's made like a whole bunch of machines that do that shit for us."

So basically they did have servants, just not human ones. That was . . . interesting. And it certainly explained the occasional random machine he'd spotted in a few of the rooms Zoet had shown him. He'd thought they'd looked a little like cleaning machines, but couldn't be sure because Zoet hadn't pointed them out or otherwise drawn any attention to them.

Maybe she just assumed that he was the same, like he did with her.

There were two main floors in the trunk of the mansion, which Zoet took him around. Since the house had its own network and the same type of monitors that the Underground NetBattlers HQ had in almost every room and hallway, so their Navis could follow along without being carried in their PETs. It made the tour a lot more lively, Chaud had to say, as Flight chimed in with cheerful comments about things that Zoet was about to explain (to which Zoet would normally snap 'don't tell me to do what I'm already doing') and Virus was able to just ignore them entirely and show ProtoMan the network.

There was a music room on the second floor that was basically just entirely for Zoet, and it was full of almost any kind of musical instrument that Chaud could name. The one in the very centre was a slightly-battered drumkit, clearly the only thing in the room that Zoet even bothered with (although everything else also got their uses, as Arin had somehow created program data for each of the instruments, allowing Flight and Virus to use them in the cyberworld, which they showed off quite hapily. It turned out ProtoMan was really good with the guitar).

Zoet gave him a short drum solo, showing off her skills - mainly at her Navis' prompting - and it turned out that she hadn't been kidding about the Musical Arts Academy. If she hadn't thrown the drum sticks at the examiner, she probably would've gotten in with honours.

The last thing Zoet showed him was her bedroom, which was located almost at the top of the tree mansion, and seemed more out of the way than most of the other rooms.

Apparently the only way in or out of Zoet's room (unless you climbed up the entire tree and snuck in through the window, which only Zoet herself was crazy enough to do) was a hallway that seemed oddly slanted, and it took Chaud a few moments to figure out what was wrong here.

"We're on one of the tree's branches," he realised, looking around the hallway with a new perspective. There was certainly nothing to indicate that this hallway was any different to any of the others - it didn't look any different, and didn't feel any different, other than the slant - but now that he'd actually noticed it, he could actually tell it wasn't the same.

"Yup," Zoet said, without looking back. "The house has two main floors built into the actual trunk of the tree, and any other floors or rooms are built onto platforms on the tree's branches. The branches themselves have walls built over them so you don't actually leave the house when getting onto a platform floor. I have an entire platform to myself, so basically I live in a treehouse in the middle of a tree mansion."

"That . . . is actually pretty cool," Chaud admitted.

Zoet glanced over her shoulder to give him a smug look, and then paused as they came to the end of the hallway. There was a sliding glass door in front of them, and a thick red curtain covered it from the other side, stopping anyone from looking into the room from this side of the glass door.

She unlocked the sliding glass door and pushed aside the red curtain. "Welcome to my bedroom," Zoet announced.

Much like the rest of the rooms in the tree mansion, Zoet's room was large but relatively cosy. If she hadn't told him, Chaud would never have guessed that he was standing on an actual platform on a giant tree branch, because nothing other than a canopy of leaves hanging over the balcony on the opposite side of the room suggested that this was a platform. The balcony itself was seperated from the room by another set of sliding glass doors, these ones also with thick red curtains, although these were already drawn back.

The rest of the room was surprisingly clean. Chaud wasn't sure what he'd expected - a messy room with things all over the floor and the bed a complete mess, maybe. Other than one or two books (that appeared to be manga), there wasn't anything on the floor, and the bed was actually pretty neat, if a little bit scruffy.

Opposite the bed, on the wall, was another large monitor which their Navis materialised into. ProtoMan glanced around the room, and then tilted his head when he spotted the large decayed saber-tooth tiger in one corner of the room, between the bed and balcony.

"Does that thing have a jack-in port on its forehead?" he asked, somewhat incredulously.

"That is where Zoet's homepage is located," Virus explained.

" . . . I've seen weirder," ProtoMan admitted.

Chaud spared the saber-tooth tiger a glance, and almost immediately regretted it. The thing was enough to give anyone nightmares, and it certainly did live up to Zoet's description of it being a zombie tiger. Its decayed, eyeless gaze seemed to stare into his soul, and he forced himself to look away - although the image was forever burnt into his mind.

As he looked away, he spotted a strange tank built into the corner opposite the zombie tiger. It could've been an aquarium had it been filled with water, but the only water it had inside was a wide metallic dish and the tank itself was full of sand and strange plants, including what looked like a hollow branch. The tank was pretty big and also protruded out of the wall in a square, and on one part of the glass he could see a small hatch which was presumably a door of some sort.

"Do you have a pet snake?" Chaud asked, gesturing to the tank.

"Even better," Zoet replied. She went over to the tank and sat down on the floor in front of it, waving Chaud over. She tapped on the glass a couple of a times, very gently, to wake up whatever pet she had inside the tank.

Chaud was almost at her side and was beginning to sit down when the creature inside the tank crept out from inside the hollow tree branch.

He stopped immediately, and was vaguely aware of ProtoMan softly saying 'oh, no' in the background.

Inside the tank was a massive black spider. It was a thick hairy thing, and it walked slowly across the sand in the tank to the front of the tank, where it raised two front legs and gently scrabbled at the glass. In reply, Zoet reached for the hatch that would allow it to come out of the tank and onto the floor, but then she paused and glanced at Chaud, who was very slowly backing away while fighting the urge to start crying.

"The hell's up with you?" she asked, genuinely confused.

Chaud couldn't get the words out. He almost didn't want to, because he was afraid that any attempt speak on his part would result in him bursting into tears. All he could do was look at the giant spider and then at Zoet pleadingly, hoping that she would understand the problem without him speaking.

It took her a few moments, but she finally seemed to get it, her eyes widening fractionally.

Moving carefully, Zoet unlocked the hatch of the tank - Chaud froze up entirely when the spider tried to get out - and gently shooed the spider back into the hollow branch where it had been sleeping. Once the spider was back inside the branch, she closed the hatch and sat back, the very picture of relaxed in comparison to Chaud's terrified stiffness.

In the silence that followed, Chaud kept his eye on the tank in case the spider came back out, and Zoet looked at her feet quietly.

"I don't like rain," Zoet suddenly said, after what seemed like hours.

Chaud ripped his eyes away from the tank to look at her, confused.

Zoet glanced up and met his eyes. "I've only been outside three times in my entire life - four if you include that tour I gave you a couple of weeks ago," she went on. "The first time, my mom wanted to show me what the outside world looked like, and I discovered that natural sunlight really hurts. But the second time, it was raining, and I'd only ever seen rain on TV. Mom wanted to show me what it was like for real, so we went outside. I immediately decided I hated it, because it felt like water bullets from the sky. Whenever I see it on TV, I always remember that moment and I remember I hate it all over again."

All Chaud could manage was a croak that sounded a lot more like a terrified squeak, but for once Zoet didn't immediately start to make fun of him. He cleared his throat and waited until he was sure that he could speak without breaking down or ending up with nothing but broken sounds.

"You . . . don't like rain," he said. His voice sounded like he really needed a drink and he kinda felt like it too, but he could at least talk without crying.

"Absolutely hate it," Zoet said, nodding. "And you . . . you don't like spiders."

That was a mild way of putting his pants-wetting phobia of the eight-legged monsters.

"He's behind glass," Zoet told him, jerking her head towards the tank. "Can't hurt you at all, but he wouldn't hurt you anyway."

"I'm not going near it," Chaud immediately said.

"Dude, Legolas is harmless. You hang around _me_ for fuck's sake, and I'm more dangerous than a tiny eight-legged furry bug. Are you scared of me?"

"No," Chaud mumbled, deciding not to mention that he _had_ been somewhat afraid of her - at first, anyway. He was still a little wary, sure, but he didn't step on eggshells anymore.

"Then get your skinny ass over here and sit down. He's. Behind. Glass."

Moving very, very cautiously, Chaud headed over to her. He paused at her shoulder and glanced at her uncertainly, but all she did was stare back evenly. He took a small breath and sat down.

Zoet nodded and tapped the glass gently again. Maybe she'd trained the spider to respond to the gentle taps, because that was all it took for the thing to crawl out from the hollow branch again. Chaud watched it move, feeling his skin crawling along with the spider's legs and his muscles simultaneously stiffen and turn to jelly.

"Meet Legolas," Zoet said.

He was momentarily distracted from his rising terror.

"Legolas?" Chaud asked incredulously. "You . . . you called your pet spider _Legolas_?"

"What else was I gonna call him?" Zoet snapped defensively.

"She was kind of obsessed with _Lord of the Rings_ at the time," Flight put in.

"You shut up."

 **oooo**

He was only able to manage a couple of minutes in front of the spider - in front of Legolas, he reminded himself, because it had a name even if he was terrified of it - so he got up and wandered away to the decayed zombie tiger on the other side of the room.

Curious, Chaud pulled out his PET and held it up to ProtoMan, who considered the options and shrugged, then nodded. Chaud jacked him out of the house's network and then jacked him into the saber-tooth tiger. They really had seen weirder places to put a homepage (including an actual teddy bear at one point), but this was certainly among the stranger ones.

Zoet's homepage sort of reflected the zombie tiger. There was a strange eerie feel to the homepage and the panels were a little muted as if someone had tried to drain all the colour out but had gotten bored halfway through, and the background was similar. Like most people, Zoet's background consisted of the NaviMark on her Navis (or, well, Navi - since Virus didn't have a NaviMark), although it was a duller gold and the design was more intricate than the simple Z.

"What's up with the giant space?" ProtoMan wondered, looking around with a frown.

The space he was standing in currently was large enough to be considered a mini-network (like something from a security device, or maybe a cooker), although Chaud caught sight of some branching paths in the distance. In one corner of the open space was a connection to what he assumed was the house's network, and there were a few other connections and banners (with symbols and letters he didn't understand, because they were all in Savaron) nearby.

"The big space is mostly for Flight," Zoet said, suddenly appearing at his shoulder. Chaud just barely stopped himself from jumping. "She likes to fly around and stuff. The branching paths are Virus's playground - it's all kinda like one big maze."

She jacked in her own Navis and Flight and Virus appeared next to ProtoMan.

"You wanna go get lost in a maze of data?" Flight offered with a grin.

"I'd rather not, thank you," ProtoMan declined.

Chaud was about to ask what some of the banners were for when he was interrupted by a very loud and very obnoxious caterwauling. It sounded far away but whatever was making the sound had a very good set of lungs, as he could hear it clearly from here.

Zoet listened to the caterwauling and then scowled. "Damn cats, you were fed earlier," she muttered. "I bet it's Gluttony again."

"How much coin you willing to bet on that?" Flight wondered.

"You will lose," Virus cautioned her.

"Wait, hold on, you have a cat called Gluttony?" Chaud asked. "Do . . . do you just like weird names, or is this pure coincidence?"

"We have ten cats and seven of them are named after the seven deadly sins," Zoet replied flatly. "Yes, we like weird names. Also may I refer to you my own name, which is completely made up, and-"

"It's a Dutch word meaning-" Flight began to remind her gleefully.

"You shut up or I'll defrag your data," Zoet snapped.

"That doesn't even make any sense."

Chaud was still trying to wrap his head around the 'seven deadly sins' thing. "Why do you have ten cats and why are seven of them named after sins?" he wondered.

Zoet just shrugged. "We used to just have two, Droplet and her sister Null, and then we got another cat called Bobby, but Mom kinda forgot to get them neutered so Droplet and Bobby ended up having kittens. Mom got them and the kittens done after that. But yeah, Droplet had seven kittens so we decided to name them all after the seven deadly sins, and so far every single one of them has lived up to their names."

"I thought a cat could only have four or five kittens at once," Chaud said, mildly confused.

"There are rare occasions in which a pregnant cat will give birth to a much higher number of kittens, such as Droplet," Virus explained.

Well, fair enough, he supposed.

"Oi, you wanna meet the cats?" Zoet offered. "Unless you also have a horrifying phobia of cats."

"No, I'm fine with cats," Chaud replied. He loved cats, actually - they were quiet (most of the time), and they also killed things like bugs. Namely spiders. Though he doubted they'd go after Zoet's pet spider, since it was far too big.

Zoet took him out of her room and led him through the house until they ended up in a branch hallway that led to another platform room. This room was purely for the cats because there were so many of them, and as soon as Zoet opened the door (which was an actual door this time, not a sliding glass door like her room had), the caterwauling got even louder.

It was coming from a chubby, fluffy white-and-grey cat sitting in the middle of the floor, which was littered with cat toys and various other objects. Nine other cats milled around the edges of the room, one or two hissing at the wailing cat, while the others just ignored it completely.

"Jesus shit, Gluttony, shut up!" Zoet called over the caterwauling. "You've been fed!"

At the sound of Zoet's voice, the white-and-grey cat stopped wailing and perked its ears up curiously. It sprang to its feet and padded over, brushing against Zoet's legs, and then when it noticed Chaud it sniffed at him and purred.

"We normally stick them in here with enough food to last for the rest of the day until either of us gets back," Zoet explained, wandering over to a collection of food and water dishes to check them. "Gluttony tends to eat more than her fair share. And then complains about being hungry ten minutes later."

"Why don't you put her in a seperate place when you give them food?" Chaud asked, bending down to stroke Gluttony's head.

"And leave her locked up all day just because she eats more than she should? No way, that'd be cat abuse or something."

Chaud sat down on the floor - which felt very soft, probably for the cats' benefit - and was almost immediately accosted by every single cat. They were all very curious about the new person, Zoet explained, because they rarely ever got to meet the people that her mother brought back (most of those people were business partners or something) and Zoet herself didn't have any human friends other than Chaud. Which was kind of sad, but Zoet didn't appear too bothered about it, so Chaud didn't mention anything.

Zoet introduced him to the ten cats, and he was very glad that they all looked different because otherwise he'd never remember who was who.

Gluttony was, of course, the white-and-grey cat. Her mother Droplet was a white cat while her sister Null had pure black fur. Wrath was a black tabby and Pride was a tortoiseshell, while Greed was a white-and-brown tabby. Those were the female cats. The male cats were Bobby, a dark brown tabby, Lust, a black and white cat, Envy, a white tabby, and finally Sloth, who was a grey tabby.

And as Zoet said, each of the sin-named cats lived up to their names. Just while he was sitting there, Chaud witnessed Wrath get into a hissing fight with her brother Envy, which Droplet quickly broke up by cuffing both of them over the head. Greed kept hogging all of the toys to herself while Sloth just lounged around idly, and Lust lived up to his name in a strange way - because he was neautered, there was no way for him to actually be lustful, but he somehow lived up to the name by meowing at Chaud every five seconds, demanding attention. Pride strutted around like she owned the place, and Gluttony kept yowling for food.

Meanwhile their parents and aunt were a lot calmer, though Bobby was more relaxed than the responsible Droplet and Null seemed to prefer being on her own rather than joining in with everything that was going on. Zoet seemed to be closest with Null, which kind of made sense.

They stayed in the cat room for a couple of hours before Virus realised what time it was, and informed everyone that dinner was supposed to be right now. That kind of set Gluttony off again, along with Lust and Wrath this time, so Zoet just muttered a few curses and enlisted Chaud's help to herd the cats down to the kitchen where she could feed them properly and get herself and Chaud some food too.

After that, Zoet decided it was too much of a hassle to get all ten cats back into the cat room, so they ended up just letting them roam about the house - which was what they normally did anyway, Flight said, so it didn't matter too much.

They ended up playing some video game that Chaud had never heard of in the living room. He didn't understand the written dialogue at all (because it was all in Savaron), but Zoet and her Navis explained the controls to him and ProtoMan gave him translations whenever it was necessary. Their actual goal had been to progress through the story and Zoet had thought that having a second player would help with that, but more often than not they ended up fighting each other because it was more fun.

By the time Arin came back from wherever she'd been today (Zoet said she was at HQ, writing up her report of the incident yesterday), they'd just scrapped moving the story forward altogether and were just constantly trying to kill each other.

"Well, you two are having fun," Arin laughed when she came into the living room. "How much time have you spent trying to beat that game, again?"

"Like, weeks," Zoet replied absently, concentrating on hitting Chaud's character with a powerful sword. She hissed in approval when she managed to get a weak spot, and then growled when Chaud responded with a powerful slash of the katana in his own character's hands.

Arin just shook her head at their antics and dropped a bag on the table in front of the sofa they were sitting on. Zoet quickly paused the game and looked at the bag curiously.

"I got stuff," Arin announced cheerfully. "If either of you kiddies are interested, I was thinking we could marathon _Harry Potter_ for the rest of the day. Everything in this bag is exclusively for a movie marathon!"

Chaud raised his hand to get her attention. "Two questions," he said. "One - will I even be able to understand the movies, and two - what's _Harry Potter_?"

"Dude," Zoet said, sounding extremely offended, "how do you _not know_ what _Harry Potter_ is?"

"I don't watch that many movies, or play that many games," Chaud defended himself.

"That is no excuse. Mom, we're doing the marathon, if only to show this dumbass here the awesomeness that is _Harry Potter_. Although the books are better."

"That they are, but you can't read seven books in a single day," Arin agreed. "You can, however, watch eight movies in a single day - if you're dedicated and if you don't mind staying up all night."

"I have calculated this," Virus said, "and it would take around twenty hours to watch all eight movies. If you do not take breaks."

" . . . Well." Arin seemed stumped for a moment. "Uh. . . . I have no solution to this."

"Watch four today and four tomorrow," Zoet suggested.

"We don't have a day off tomorrow," Chaud reminded her.

" _Shit_."

"Four today and four when you guys next have a day off," Flight said.

"That'll do," Arin agreed happily. "Alright, Zoet - you go get the first four movies. Chaud - you can help me make the popcorn. There will be a lot of it. Also, yes, you'll be able to understand the movies, since the words are spoken and the PET translates spoken words."

That was somewhat of a relief, but he'd never tried this before, so he hadn't known.

He'd also never eaten popcorn before, but he didn't mention that in case he got weird reactions again. So he'd never watched movies or played games or whatever, who cared?

Obviously these guys, but since this was a day off and he'd spent most of it trying to kill Zoet's character in a random fighting game, it wouldn't do much harm to waste the rest of his time watching a bunch of movies called _Harry Potter_. The name kind of sounded familiar, but it was probably one of those things that almost everyone knew about and the name just got put everywhere, and he just hadn't cared about it until now. It did sound kind of interesting, though.

But just as they were settling down onto the sofa, Arin leaned forward and gave him a serious look.

"The main character in this movie series has childhood issues," Arin said bluntly. "I just want to ask if any of the stuff that may show up on-screen will have any effect on you."

He could feel Zoet watching him on his other side, but all Chaud did was shrug.

"I don't know," he replied, somewhat uncertainly. "What exactly do you mean by 'childhood issues'?"

"He was and is abused by his aunt and uncle and cousin," Arin explained. "There's a lot of theories rolling around that they're all so horrible to him because they've been living with a Horcrux for years-"

"Living with a Horcrux does not excuse child abuse," Zoet snapped.

"I know, I'm just saying a theory. They're horrible to Harry, and it does kind of get better for him at some point, but I just wanted to know if any of this might be . . . well, not okay for you to watch," Arin said.

Chaud was both startled and touched by her concern. "I'll be fine," he assured her.

"You sure?" Arin asked carefully. He nodded. "Well . . . alright then. Jackal, start the movie!"

"I do everything in this house, I swear . . ." Jackal grumbled.

"Dude, we're taking it in turns to start these things up," Flight informed him.

"That's something at least."

Jackal started the movie, and several minutes into the movie, Chaud understood why Arin had been so concerned.

Harry's aunt, uncle and cousin were horrible to him. Chaud didn't know what Arin and Zoet meant by 'living with a Horcrux', but there was absolutely no excuse for what they were doing to the poor kid. When his uncle Vernon locked Harry in the cupboard, he winced, unconsciously replacing Vernon with his own father - and Harry with himself. It honestly wasn't much of a stretch to consider that, but his father had never actually hurt him physically (yet).

"You alright?" Arin asked him quietly.

He briefly considered lying, but he was pretty sure both Arin and Zoet could feel his tenseness. There would be not point.

"Pause the movie a sec," Arin told Jackal. Her Navi complied without a complaint this time, and Arin turned to Chaud. "If you're not alright with watching this, we can skip the worst of it - Zoet can tell you the basics of what happens anyway. She knows the entire series off-by-heart."

"Don't dump this on me, you know it too," Zoet muttered.

"I-I'm fine with watching this," Chaud said. "It's just . . . I keep . . ." He couldn't get the words out, but Arin seemed to understand.

"You keep imagining yourself in his shoes," she guessed, and he nodded meekly. "Do you mind if I ask how personal this is for you?"

Chaud looked at his hands, resting idly on his lap, and didn't answer.

Arin and Zoet exchanged a glance over his head.

"My dad," Chaud blurted out after an uncomfortable pause. "He . . . he doesn't do any of . . . that, but he's . . . um . . . he's not very nice."

Arin didn't respond for a moment, but when she did, her tone was gentle. "Do you want to skip this part?" she asked.

Chaud closed his eyes and took a steadying breath. "I can handle it," he insisted, knowing damn well that he was lying through his teeth - but something inside him said that he didn't need this kind of pity, and although he didn't like listening to it, he couldn't shut it up.

Zoet opened her mouth and probably would've said something very blunt if Arin hadn't given her a sharp look. With a quiet, annoyed growl, Zoet sank into her seat and looked at the TV screen again.

"I'm not going to force you to do something if you don't want to do it," Arin said to Chaud.

"I'm fine," he almost snapped, but her open concern made his tone softer.

" . . . Alright," Arin eventually said. She looked at the screen again. "Jackal, unpause." She glanced at Chaud out of the corner of her eye as the movie started playing again. "If it looks like you're not alright or something, I'll tell Jackal to skip. Okay?"

Chaud was so close to saying that it wasn't necessary, but he realised that Arin wasn't just being overbearingly concerned for the sake of it. Genuine worry was driving her, and that kind of thing he just wasn't used to from anyone who wasn't ProtoMan, or maybe Haruka and Dr. Hikari, but then he just assumed that they were nice to him because he was the same age as Lan - Zoet, on the other hand, was a few years older than him. But a mother was always a mother, he supposed.

"Okay," Chaud agreed.

 **oooo**

The credits rolled for the fourth _Harry Potter_ movie, and Arin held her arms high above her head and stretched. Then she glanced to her right and smiled when she spotted both the kids asleep. Zoet, in her usual fashion, was just slumped where she was sitting. Chaud, on the other hand, had pulled up his legs and was curled up in his spot between Arin and Zoet.

Arin smiled. It probably wouldn't be a good idea to wake either of them - Zoet was likely to wake up fighting if she touched her, and Chaud looked like he really needed the sleep anyway.

But it wasn't comfortable to sleep on the sofa.

"Jackal, would you mind calling Dr. Hikari for me?" Arin asked quietly, getting up carefully so she wouldn't disturb the kids.

"Sleepover?" Jackal guessed lightly, small beeps indicating that he was dialing Dr. Hikari's PET number.

"Yep," she agreed. She frowned at the three PETs on the table, and picked up Chaud's. "Hey, ProtoMan, how deeply does Chaud sleep?"

"Most of the time, not very," ProtoMan replied. He tilted his head. "Why?"

"I want to move him to one of the guest bedrooms," Arin replied. "Kid looks like he needs the sleep and I don't want to move him if it means waking him up."

"What about Zoet?"

"She sleeps very lightly and if I touch her, she's likely to go berserk."

ProtoMan shifted, as if he was wincing - it was hard to tell with that visor, but Arin was used to the completely-faceless Virus, so at least she had some idea of what he was feeling.

"Yeah, I know," he muttered. "Chaud and I figured that out when she put a trafficker in hospital."

"Oh, she's done worse," Arin said, grinning. "From what Zoet told me, the guy got off lightly."

"That . . . that is mildly concerning," ProtoMan admitted.

"Hey, if you're worried she'll attack Chaud, don't be," Flight called quietly from Zoet's PET.

"She does not attack those she is close to without a very good reason," Virus agreed.

"I got Dr. Hikari," Jackal informed Arin, interrupting the conversation.

Arin nodded her thanks and put Chaud's PET down, then picked up her own. On the screen was Dr. Hikari, looking as though he was about to go to bed. Arin could see the walls of a hotel room in the background, and his wife - Haruka, if she remembered correctly - was just climbing into bed.

"Arin?" Dr. Hikari asked, looking startled. "How did you get this number?"

"I know everyone's numbers," Arin replied mysteriously. She'd gotten this one from Chaud, actually, and most of the others from Kris and Roahm.

"Well, alright . . . What do you need?"

Arin titled the PET screen so Dr. Hikari could see Chaud and Zoet sleeping behind her. "The kiddies fell asleep and I don't wanna wake up the little one, so I just called to let you know where he is," she explained. "In case you and everyone else were worried."

Dr. Hikari blinked in surprise. "I . . . guess this explains why he didn't come back to the hotel today," he said. "I have to be honest, I didn't expect this to be the reason why."

"Oh?" Arin asked curiously. "What did you expect?"

"Not this," the Electopian scientist replied vaguely. Arin had a feeling there was more to this than she knew (the way Chaud had been acting around his 'friends' yesterday just screamed uncomfortable, but she didn't know the full story and she wasn't about to act on any assumptions).

"Well, whatever you expected, he's perfectly safe and he'll just spend the night here," Arin said. "Just wanted to let you know."

"Thank you." Dr. Hikari smiled at her. "Will he be coming back in the morning, or will he go straight to . . . you-know-where?"

"Well, since it's easier to just go to HQ from here, yeah," Arin said. "He'll probably get back to you guys sometime tomorrow evening."

"Alright then. Again, thanks for the heads-up. Goodnight."

"Night," she replied.

Jackal hung up the call, and Arin glanced at the kids. Neither of them had woken up during the talking. She smiled.

 **OOOOOO**

And this is what I meant by Chaud-angst. Most of this chapter is kinda light-hearted to contrast the bullshit that was the previous chapter, but then I decided to have these guys marathon the _Harry Potter_ movies, and then this bit at the end here kind of happened.

In case it's not obvious, I really, really don't like Chaud's father. That man is a dick and one goddamn dinner will not make me forgive him. On the _Harry Potter_ thing, I don't much like the whole 'they were living with a Horcrux' theory because, while it may be true, there is absolutely no excuse for child abuse. None. I will fight anyone who thinks otherwise.

Moving on to more light-hearted matters, I've been thinking about various things after I decided on the _Harry Potter_ marathon. Namely what the kids in this fic would be if they were in the _Harry Potter_ universe.

Lan would be half-blood (Dr. Hikari is a wizard while Haruka is a Muggle), and Maylu and Dex would be Muggle-born. Tory is also half-blood (father a Muggle, mother a witch), while Yai, of course, is pureblood. Chaud would also be pureblood, but unlike those two, Zoet would actually be half-blood (Arin is a witch, her father would have been a Muggle).

As for what Houses they would all be in, I think some of them are more obvious than others.

Lan is definitely Gryffindor, because what else would he be? Maylu would also be Gryffindor, and Dex would actually be in Slytherin. Tory's the nicest one in the group but he will fight anyone who threatens his friends, so he's Hufflepuff, and Yai and Chaud are both in Ravenclaw.

I actually had a few problems trying to figure out what House Zoet would be in, since she's not ambitious, she doesn't care for making friends (Chaud being the exception), she's not insanely intelligent, and she basically has to be bribed to do 80% of the things she doesn't want to do. But Gryffindor would probably be the best place for her since gold colours is her family thing, and she is actually pretty much 'rules are made to be broken' on a lesser scale than Lan (who breaks rules on a regular basis and is very, very happy to do so).

But yeah that's what I think everyone would be. I also did try to figure out what the Navis would be, but since they're Navis I don't think it'd be possible to make them into people for the sake of an idea, and it would be too silly to make them into animals such as toads, cats, or owls. Maybe this weird AU idea would be ' _Harry Potter_ if it was in the _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ world' and everyone would still have Navis.

Read and review!


	16. Chapter 16 - Heal What Has Been Hurt

I keep being torn between having a specific scene be from Lan's POV or Chaud's . . . On one hand, the original idea I had for it was for Chaud to have the POV, but I had an idea as to how to make it from Lan's POV. Hmm . . . aaand I just got an idea of how to do it from both!

Problem solved.

Oh, before I dump the profiles on you guys and start the chapter properly, you know that 'what would these characters be if they were in the _Harry Potter_ universe' thing from the previous AN? Well, there's actually another one concerning our main group of people (Chaud, ProtoMan, Zoet, Virus and Flight, that is) and it's to do with the awesomeness that is _Teen Titans_. I've been listening to the theme song a lot lately, for no particular reason, and I was thinking about how those five would fit in the roles of the Teen Titans.

It took some thinking because I kept getting torn on who would be the counterpart of what character, and the only one I could get a concrete decision on was Chaud. But anyway, this is what I've thought of for them.

Chaud would be Robin. Zoet would be Raven. ProtoMan would be Cyborg. Virus would be Beast Boy. Flight would be Starfire.

I kind of got stuck on who would be Cyborg, and my original idea was for Virus to be Cyborg because Cyborg is kinda like the resident hacker, and that's what Virus is for these guys. But the only problem with that is that Virus is actually technically sort of the weakest Navi out of the three (unless it uses Rising Thunder, in which case you better fuckin' run) and Cyborg also doubles as the strongest guy in the Teen Titans, so I got stuck for Virus mainly. In the end I decided to go with Virus's main ability, Design Shift, which marks it as a shapeshifter, which also in turn marks it as Beast Boy's counterpart - leaving Cyborg's role as the strongest to be for ProtoMan, since he's the most powerful one out of the three. Starfire was relatively easy, since Flight is both the most bubbly in the group and also very fast in the air. Like, literally fast. You haven't seen it yet, but she's actually able to break the sound barrier if she wants to. Or whatever the digital equivalent is.

I chose Robin for Chaud since he's more or less the only non-powered one in the group (three of them are Navis and therefore not human, and Zoet is just insane), although at the moment Zoet is more a leader than he is, mainly because he's new and she knows all the stuff. Zoet being Raven's counterpart is partly due to personality, since Raven acts like she doesn't care about anyone and gets defensive when confronted about it, but (to use Chaud's words) she's actually a massive softie.

This isn't really gonna go anywhere either, I just wanted to throw it out there for no reason.

Anywho, profiles!

/022fbi8b2zj7

Zoet.

/01ndi1falgd8

Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

Flight.

/026mkj34tsh1

The map.

/01lqxk014x6q

And the battle suit.

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"So, Maylu and Roll took some pictures of the networks around here," Lan said, shifting through the pictures on the PET. "There's some really cool ones - there's this district called the Jungle District, and it doesn't really make sense that there's a jungle down here, but the network for that place is freakin' _awesome_ , trust me. Here, look!"

He brought up the pictures of the Jungle Areas, which consisted of data that looked a lot like digivines - not the virus type, but actual vines that didn't get in the way and just added to the look of the network. It was all really grassy and green and brown and Lan had to say, he really liked the look of that network. It was like a digital forest.

He said as much to MegaMan, but got no response in return. Lan wasn't even sure if MegaMan was even seeing the pictures, even though he was looking right at them. His gaze was blank though, so maybe he wasn't.

"The Historical Areas are really old-looking," Lan went on, bringing up those pictures next. "It kinda reminds me of that Drill network we had to go through to save Dex and the others in the Oran mine, remember that? Except it's not all rocky and it's more kinda like, well, old-style stuff. It's really cool."

Nothing. Not a word, not a sound, not even a twitch to show that his brother was even listening or paying attention.

"But my favourite has to be the Cultural Areas," Lan went on resolutely. "They're so _colourful_ \- here, have a look, you'll love them too!" He brought up the pictures of the Cultural Areas. "There's some really cool data there too. Roll found the Sun Pyramid's data in Cultural Area 4, and it's just so bright and complicated, it's like a shiny puzzle. There's also that Moon Pyramid thing that Professor Hestia mentioned, and Maylu said the actual thing itself is really impressive and it really does look like it's got a moon on the tip, and the data for it is like an inverted Sun Pyramid. But the colour is what I like best, 'cus it's like rainbows vomited all over the place - in a good way, that is."

MegaMan still didn't reply.

Lan, who had paused to see if MegaMan would reply to anything he'd just said, found himself unable to continue talking. He'd been trying this for days on end, just talking and talking and hoping that MegaMan would at least show some interest - even just to snap at him and tell him to stop talking, at this point Lan was willing to take quite literally any form of response.

But no matter how much he tried, Lan still couldn't get anything from MegaMan.

The silence stretched between them.

Moving wearily, Lan dismissed the pictures - maybe he could show them to MegaMan when he was better - and slumped back onto the headboard of his hotel room bed, staring at the screen of his PET in dismay.

" . . . I'm sorry," Lan mumbled. "I . . . I wish everything was better. This place is amazing, and you can't enjoy any of it because you're . . . I'm just so, so sorry. I really wish we could've come here when things were better. MegaMan, please . . . please just say something."

He leaned forward, hunching over the PET, hoping that MegaMan would finally listen to his pleas.

MegaMan said absolutely nothing.

Lan fell silent too, and it was only when a splash of water dripped onto the PET that he realised he'd started crying. Once he realised that, there was suddenly no holding back the tears, and it was all he could do to keep himself quiet. No one needed to know he was crying like this, it was his problem to deal with and . . . and . . .

He just wanted his brother back.

 **oooo**

Chaud couldn't move away from the wall. He stared blankly at the floor, listening to the sound of Lan trying to very quietly conceal his crying, not sure what he was feeling and uncertain as to how to deal with this.

Anger he could deal with - he dealt with anger on a regular basis, and it was easier to respond to someone who was angry, but to deal with someone who was crying? That he had no idea how to handle. He didn't know the first thing about making someone feel better, and Chaud knew that friends were supposed to support friends when times were bad, but he just didn't know what to do.

He considered telling someone - maybe Dr. Hikari, or Haruka - but then dismissed the idea almost as soon as he thought of it. Lan was trying to hide this. He probably didn't want anyone, not even his parents, knowing.

But he had to do _something_.

Lan was breaking apart and Chaud did not want to sit and watch it happen, even if Lan was still unreasonably angry with him.

" . . . Chaud?" ProtoMan quietly asked. "Are you alright?"

"It's not me you should be asking that to," Chaud mumbled. "Lan's crying his heart out and there's nothing I can do."

"Maybe . . ."

ProtoMan trailed off, but Chaud pulled out his PET and looked at his Navi.

"What is it?" he asked.

ProtoMan swallowed and looked Chaud in the eyes. "Maybe if we helped MegaMan get better, it'd make Lan feel better, too," he suggested.

That was a good idea, but there was no way to do that. The only way of helping MegaMan that anyone could come up with was fixing his spine, but the method for doing that was still being tested - Dr. Hikari had said that they were about halfway there, but there was still a lot of work to be done, and it was far from complete.

"Perhaps if someone talked to MegaMan?" ProtoMan went on.

Chaud sighed and shook his head, turning his gaze back to the floor. "Everyone's already trying that - and it's not doing a thing. He just doesn't respond to anything. Not even Lan."

"Maybe the wrong people are talking to him."

Surprised, Chaud looked back at his Navi. ProtoMan squared his shoulders, looking vaguely uncomfortable.

"Well, it's just . . . none of us know what MegaMan's going through," the red Navi explained awkwardly. "I was thinking . . . maybe if someone who did know could talk to him? It might not work, but it's something we haven't tried yet, and . . . well, it's just an idea, really."

"A really good one," Chaud praised him, straightening up. He frowned thoughtfully. "But who do we know that's gone through the same thing as MegaMan? I mean, there's Kris, but she's a human, and I don't think a human would be able to relate to a Navi in terms of injuries. But there's no Navis who've been injured like this before. MegaMan's the first Navi to be crippled like this."

They both went silent, and listened to Lan's quiet crying again. Chaud was suddenly filled with the need to do something, but while ProtoMan's idea was good, there was nothing they could do about it.

Then ProtoMan suddenly looked up.

"We do know a crippled Navi," he said quickly, almost excitedly.

"What?"

"Well, not crippled in the same way as MegaMan, but . . . maybe it's similar enough that it can help," ProtoMan went on. "It can talk to MegaMan - but it would also mean revealing the Underground NetBattlers to Lan."

All at once, Chaud understood what ProtoMan was talking about, and his mind began whirling through possibilities. "What if we _didn't_ tell Lan?" he wondered. "He doesn't have to know, we could just take his PET and then give it back, hopefully before he wakes up."

"Wait, you want to steal Lan's PET?" ProtoMan stared at him, open-mouthed, as if he'd gone completely insane.

"He's not gonna listen to me if I try talking to him anyway," Chaud pointed out. "Besides, it's only MegaMan we need to help, right? If we can help MegaMan out, then we can help Lan, and he doesn't even need to know about any of this."

"But . . . stealing his PET . . ."

"We'd only be borrowing it," Chaud corrected him. "And hopefully not for very long, either. I just hope she's willing to get up in the middle of the night for this . . ."

"I can see you've already made up your mind," ProtoMan commented. He sounded resigned, but also amused.

"Yes I have. I'll leave you in my room so you can arrange it, and I'll wait until Lan's asleep so I can grab his PET," Chaud said. ProtoMan nodded.

 **oooo**

He waited until there was no sound coming from Lan's room, and then very carefully opened the door. Lan was asleep on top of the bedsheets, curled up, and even from here Chaud could see tear marks on his cheek.

Lan would get angrier and would probably hate him forever if he ever found out about what he was about to do, and if he got caught, it'd be a million times worse. So Chaud moved as silently as he could manage - which was very silent, he was used to sneaking around to avoid angry people - and slipped the PET out of Lan's loose grip.

Lan mumbled something and Chaud froze, terrified that he was about to wake up and discover the attempted theft, but Lan went still again. He then left a note on the bedside table, hoping he'd be able to take it away and give back the PET before Lan woke up.

Only when he was out of Lan's room and back in his own did Chaud relax properly, the PET containing MegaMan gripped in his hands.

"Did you get it?" ProtoMan asked, startling him.

Chaud glanced over at the bed where he'd left his own PET.

"Yeah," Chaud replied. "Did you manage to get her to agree?"

"She almost said 'not my problem', but stopped halfway through the sentence," ProtoMan reported. "She's waiting in the training room. She also says that she's mildly impressed by the way you've decided to steal your friend's PET."

"She _would_ be impressed with that," Chaud muttered, grabbing his PET.

When he arrived at the Underground NetBattler's HQ, he was surprised to find it mostly deserted. The few operatives he passed in the hallways were unfamiliar to him, and it took him a moment to figure out why - these guys were the 'night shift', as Zoet called them. The people who worked at HQ and around the city during the evening and night.

He got no stares as he walked by them. Clearly these people were a lot different to the operatives who worked during the day.

When he finally arrived at the training room, he saw Zoet sitting on the ground waiting for him, and looking like she was about to fall asleep. She didn't bother to get up when he stopped in front of her, instead opting to just raise her head and give him a half-hearted glare.

"I was asleep," she informed him. "ProtoMan gave me a goddamn heart attack. Thanks."

"You still came," Chaud pointed out.

"And I seriously wonder why," Zoet muttered. She shook her head and nodded towards the training room. "It's already inside, all you need to do is jack MegaMan into the system."

"Thank you," Chaud said truthfully.

Zoet just shrugged and shuffled down until she was slumped, half-asleep again.

He didn't waste any time - he just opened the doors and went straight in, and Virus, who was standing in the middle of the room already, looked at him. If it had a face, Chaud thought it probably would've looked curious.

"You requested my assistance," it said.

"Yeah," Chaud replied, coming to a halt in front of it. He held out Lan's PET, showing it MegaMan. "This is Lan Hikari's NetNavi, MegaMan. ProtoMan and I thought maybe you could help him out."

"He has not spoken since his accident," Virus recalled. Chaud nodded to comfirm it, and Virus went on. "And you believe I may be able to relate - to speak with him in a way that others cannot."

"Yes."

"Because I, too, am a crippled Navi."

Chaud blinked. He couldn't tell if Virus was offended by any of this. It was quite unsettling.

"That's right," he replied.

Virus didn't speak for a moment.

" . . . Jack him in," it finally told Chaud.

Relieved, Chaud held up Lan's PET. "Jack in, MegaMan," he said. Boy, did that feel a little weird to say. He'd operated MegaMan before, but he'd never jacked in any Navi aside from ProtoMan.

And it was strange to see MegaMan sitting in the wheelchair program, when normally any Navi would be standing up. It was even stranger to not have MegaMan immediately start to question why Lan wasn't the one jacking him in, why it was Chaud, and where he was.

Virus looked at MegaMan, head tilted, and then walked over to stand in front of him. It reached forward and put the tips of its claws onto the NaviMark on MegaMan's chest, and data sparked between the NaviMark and Virus's palm. When the sparks died down, Virus released MegaMan's NaviMark and stepped back.

Then it used Design Shift and turned itself into a blank-eyed, blank-NaviMarked MegaMan.

After seeing MegaMan in the wheelchair program for so long, it was a little strange to see him standing - even if it was Virus.

"MegaMan," Virus said with MegaMan's monotone voice. "Look at me."

It seemed that the shock of hearing his own voice speaking to him was enough to finally force MegaMan to react to something, and he very slowly raised his head. Upon spotting Virus in his form, his eyes widened fractionally, and he stared at Virus silently.

"My name is Virus," Virus went on. "I wish to speak with you." It turned its head towards Chaud. "You may leave. This is a private matter, and I feel that MegaMan would not wish to have his secrets on show as though they are ribbons in the wind."

Numbly, Chaud nodded and backed out until he was out of the training room. The door closed and he just caught a glimpse of Virus turning back to MegaMan and beginning to speak. The door closed, and the two Navis inside the room were cut off from the rest of the world.

"What made you think of Virus?" Zoet's voice startled him out of his thoughts, and he glanced over his shoulder. She was still sitting where she had been before, but she was looking at him now.

He wandered over and slid down the wall until he was sitting next to her.

"ProtoMan did, actually," he replied. "Really, it's thanks to him that I was able to do anything."

"Don't be so modest," ProtoMan chastised him gently. "You're the one who solidified the idea, I just gave you the basics."

"If you two start kissing, I'm leaving," Zoet said.

Successfully distracted, Chaud glanced at her. "Zoet . . ." he began.

"Oh, god, you're not gonna kiss _me_ , are you? Because if you do, I will literally kill you."

"No, I'm not . . . why would you even . . . I just wanted to ask you something," Chaud sighed. There was no arguing with Zoet, somehow she always won. "I wanted to ask about Virus."

" . . . You wanna know how it got the way it is," Zoet guessed. Her tone was as flat as Virus's and for once there was no way of telling how she felt about this - there wasn't even any anger he could detect.

"If you don't mind my asking."

Zoet sighed. "Well, you were gonna ask eventually," she muttered. "Fine. I'll tell you. If only because you deserve that much. But if you even think about blabbing it to anyone . . ."

"I won't," Chaud promised, shifting so he was more comfortable. He had a feeling they were gonna be here a while, and even if Zoet's story wouldn't take up most of their time, Virus's talk with MegaMan almost certainly would.

"There was a coordinated virus attack on the city four years ago," Zoet began, shifting her gaze to the wall opposite. Her expression was carefully blank. "Some madman wanted to destroy the entire city, and he used the worst viruses you could think of to tear apart every single network they could get into - Inkys, Rippers, Blanks, Sootys . . . and there were hundreds and hundreds of them. I wasn't even in the Underground NetBattlers at the time, but I got caught up in it anyway. _Everyone_ did. School had been cancelled because everyone was in danger almost constantly, and Mom had told me to stay at home and not even answer the door unless it was her. She thought I'd be safe there. I thought so too."

Chaud had a very, very bad feeling about where this was going. His fears were confirmed a moment later.

"I guess we forgot that the house's network could be broken into as well," she muttered, eyes narrowing slightly against the memories. "You remember I said Mom made a bunch of machines and stuff to do the cleaning and all that? All of them are controlled via the house's network. Cleaning robots can be very dangerous when they're infected with Rippers, lemme tell you. I was just playing around on my drum kit and then the robots burst in and tried to kill me. I got out, but they kept chasing me. Flight and Virus told me to jack them into the house's network so they could get rid of the Rippers and save me - I didn't want to, Rippers are even worse than Inkys if there's more than two of them, and there were four of the damn things. But they made me jack them in, and they tracked down the Rippers and deleted them. Problem was, we didn't know there was a fifth virus."

He held his breath almost unconsciously as Zoet continued.

"There was a Blank hiding away, waiting for Flight and Virus to get tired out. It attacked as soon as Virus deleted the final Ripper, and it attached itself to Virus's body and started to infect its data." Zoet glanced at Chaud. "Do you know what a Blank is?"

"No," he replied honestly.

"They're like ghosts," she explained. "They have no real form until they steal some data from another virus, but they can also take over a Navi's data and use that Navi's body as their own. The one that attacked Virus was trying to do exactly that, and it almost succeeded, but Flight managed to break it off and delete it. But Virus's data had been almost completely fucked up at that point - there was about two percent of Navi left in it, and the rest was just a complete mess. I tried to do what I could, but even with Flight helping, we couldn't get very far."

"We did manage to save its data until Zoet's mom got home, though," Flight spoke up quietly. She was very subdued from her normal cheerful personality - Zoet talking about the horrors that had befallen her twin Navi were stirring up painful memories. "She did her best to help it, but Virus had been too badly damaged to get it back to how it used to be. It's personality data, memory data, and some of its frame data were basically the only things that were left more or less uncorrupted."

"Everything else became virus data, because that was the only thing that Virus's corrupted data could accept to fix it," Zoet said. "The result of everything that Mom did to save it is what Virus is now. It's not the only ungendered Navi on the planet, but I know for a fact that it's the only one that's half-virus."

"Virus changed its name so it wouldn't ever forget what had happened to it. The name's kind of a symbol, honestly," Flight said. She sounded sad, but when Chaud glanced at the screen of Zoet's PET, there was a small smile on her face.

"The good thing about Virus's corrupted data is that it's essentially immune to any viruses that infect normal Navis," Zoet said. "But at the time, we didn't know that, and it needed a way to defend itself since it could no longer use battle chips and its basic attacks had been deleted as well. Mom programmed Smile for it, I have no idea how, and then created Design Shift so it could choose to . . . well, not look like the main antagonist from a shitty horror movie all the time."

"No one expected Design Shift to allow Virus to use battle chips again," Flight added. "It was kind of a complete accident that we discovered it - Zoet accidentally downloaded a battle chip to Virus's part of the PET, and it had been using my design data at the time. Imagine our shock when Virus was actually able to use the chip."

"And then Mom somehow managed to create a battle chip that would work for Virus even when it was in its base form," Zoet said, nodding. "Rising Thunder."

Chaud had heard her talk about the special chip before, but he'd never actually heard her refer to it by name. 'Rising Thunder' sounded extremely powerful, although he was briefly confused - it sounded like an Elec-element chip, and Virus was a Non-elemental Navi. But then he remembered that Arin's Navi was an Elec-elemental, and he supposed it was probably habit that had made Arin create an Elec-element battle chip for her daughter's crippled Navi.

Zoet was silent for a moment or two, and then she let out a mildly irritated huff and turned to Chaud. "Well, that's Virus's horrible backstory," she said.

"Zoet joined the Underground NetBattlers a couple of weeks after we found out that Virus could still use battle chips via Design Shift," Flight said. "I think that was . . . maybe a month or two after the virus attack, actually."

"Was the madman who orchestrated the attack caught?" ProtoMan asked.

"No, he got away," Zoet replied darkly, scowling. "No one's tried to bring the city down on our heads over the past few years, but everyone's always alert. No telling when that lunatic might try again."

"And if he ever shows up, we'll be ready for him," Flight promised. "The Scourge won't plunge this city into chaos as long as we're around."

 **oooo**

After Zoet finished her story, they sat in comfortable silence for a while. No one was keeping track of how much time passed, but Chaud was hoping that it wasn't too much, because otherwise he might have to deal with Lan waking up to realise that his PET had gone missing. And if Chaud just walked up to him and handed it back . . . The results would not be pretty.

A beep sounded from Zoet's PET.

"Virus sent a message," Flight reported, bringing up said message. " _We are finished and MegaMan wishes to speak with all of you._ All? Does that mean me and Zoet, too?"

"No, let's just assume that the blue-ass Navi wants to talk to someone else entirely," Zoet said sarcastically.

Flight muttered something that was probably extremely insulting, but Zoet didn't bother responding. She and Chaud stood up and went into the training room.

Virus - still in MegaMan's form - was standing exactly where Chaud had seen it last. But it was MegaMan who had changed.

He was far from the Navi who had been completely silent for the past few weeks. His gaze was no longer blank, but alert and curious, and as Chaud entered the training room MegaMan locked eyes with him - and smiled. It was a tired, sad smile, but coming from MegaMan, it was like the sun had just lit up in the middle of the room.

"Thank you," was the first thing MegaMan said. If he hadn't been a computer program, his voice would've been hoarse from misuse. As it was, MegaMan was just unnaturally quiet, although the fact that he'd just spoken was so amazing that he may as well have been shouting.

"It was the least I could do," Chaud replied, unable to hold back a smile. "Lan's been worried sick about you. Everyone has."

"I know," MegaMan mumbled, lowering his gaze to his lap. "I'll say sorry for it all later, I just wasn't . . . I wasn't in a very good place. For a while. And I reacted really badly. But . . . Virus talked to me, and . . . I won't be okay for a while, I know that, but I can start to get better. I just wanted to thank you first."

"Are we done with the touchy-feely crap?" Zoet asked, half-bored. "Seriously, you were crippled, you got extremely depressed, and now you're being all mushy. Move the hell on and get better already."

"That is Zoet-speak for 'I am grateful you are getting better'," Virus explained to MegaMan, who nodded.

"Stop that," Zoet muttered.

Chaud had to laugh at that.

MegaMan looked a little shocked at Chaud's laugh, but other than a blink, he didn't react to it. Instead, he glanced at the two PETs held in the humans' hands. Lan's PET was tucked away in Chaud's pocket.

"Could you jack in ProtoMan and . . . and Flight, was it?" MegaMan asked, glancing at Virus for confirmation. It nodded. "I want to thank them as well."

Chaud nodded and held up his PET. "Jack in, ProtoMan," he said.

Zoet just rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Jack in, Flight."

"I didn't do anything," ProtoMan said after he materialised in the training room.

"Yes you did," MegaMan insisted. "Virus told me you're the one who came up with the idea to have it talk to me. So . . . I have to thank you for this most of all. Thanks, ProtoMan."

ProtoMan looked both extremely pleased and extremely embarrassed. Flight, meanwhile, just looked confused.

"Uh, I literally _didn't_ do anything," she pointed out. "Why do you need to thank me?"

"If it wasn't for you being there for Virus, it wouldn't have been able to help me as well as it did," MegaMan answered.

Flight considered that. "Oh. Well. Fair enough, I suppose. You're welcome, blue boy."

"And I have to thank Zoet for agreeing to do this," MegaMan went on, turning to Zoet last of all. "You could've easily said no - Virus said you probably would've if you weren't Chaud's friend - so thank you. You didn't have to do anything, but you did. That goes for all of you. Thanks."

"This is too mushy," Zoet complained. "Why is everything mushy? What is this, a kids' show? Some stupid video game? No? Then stop being mushy. You're welcome for helping your crippled ass, now shut up and let me retain whatever dignity I have left. Jesus, hanging around with Electopians is turning me soft."

"You were soft already," Flight informed her.

"I will clip your wings."

With that little bit of drama out of the way, and MegaMan having confirmed that he was indeed going to try to get better himself, their job here was done. Chaud recalled both ProtoMan and MegaMan, and Zoet did the same for her two Navis - and then she decided to accompany Chaud on the tram. The main reason was that she was going in the same direction to get back home anyway, and the six of them enjoyed a relatively lively conversation before they arrived in the Jungle Station and Zoet, Flight and Virus had to leave.

Once they were gone, MegaMan asked exactly how bad Lan was. Chaud guessed he hadn't wanted to talk about such private things in front of someone who, to him at least, was a complete stranger. He tried to water it down a little, in an effort not to make MegaMan feel too bad about the last few weeks, but he could tell MegaMan wasn't fooled.

He finally got back to the hotel and stepped through the lobby doors.

" _You_."

Lan was waiting for him. He looked angrier than Chaud had ever seen him, and the sheer strength of hatred in his eyes was enough to make Chaud back away unconsciously. Lan, however, followed him and stalked up to him until they were an inch away from each other and Chaud couldn't avoid him.

"I don't know what the heck it is you're up to," Lan spat, "but you've gone too far. First you ignore us, then you abandon us, and now you steal MegaMan? Do you have any idea how worried I was, how scared I was, before I found that crappy little note?"

Chaud tried to defend himself, but Lan's glare hardened and he spoke over him.

" _Just borrowing your PET for a while. I'll bring it back, I promise,_ " he mocked. "What, have you developed a hobby of leaving crappy notes? Is that what makes you happy? To do something so _stupid_ and leave _nothing_ but a _vague explanation_? Fine, whatever. Go be happy and leave dumb notes. But what you did, stealing my PET and MegaMan? That, Chaud, is _unforgivable_. Even I wouldn't do that. Congratulations, you're just as bad as World Three was. I can't believe I ever thought of you as my friend."

Chaud swore he felt his heart freeze.

"Oh, are you gonna cry now?" Lan asked, studying him closely. "I can see tears in your eyes. I didn't think the great Chaud was capable of crying. I didn't think you were capable of feeling anything, actually. You think that'll make me feel sorry for you? Well it won't!"

He suddenly took a swing at Chaud, who tried to dodge backwards, but he was too upset and Lan was too close. He ended up taking a fist to the side of his head and he staggered sideways, gasping, and then yelped when Lan grabbed his shirt and kneed him in the stomach.

"You've always looked down on me, even after you said we were friends!" Lan yelled, swinging another punch at Chaud. "I didn't care because I thought you were actually a nice guy. I guess I was wrong; you're nothing but a bully and a _thief_!"

To emphasize his words, he yanked Chaud up again and then slammed him into the wall. He reached his fist back for another punch and Chaud flinched away.

"LAN NETTO HIKARI!"

Lan froze, eyes wide and his fist still in the air.

"How dare you!" MegaMan shouted. "He's done nothing but try to help you this entire time, and this is how you repay him? _He's_ not the bully, _you_ are!"

"M . . . MegaMan?" Lan whispered.

His grip on Chaud slackened and Chaud, not one to waste an opportunity, slipped out of his grasp and backed off until he'd put several feet between them. Lan turned to face him, his body suddenly limp with shock.

"Maybe it was wrong of him to keep secrets from everyone," MegaMan went on, as Chaud very carefully pulled out Lan's PET and held it up for Lan to see. "But, Lan, he doesn't deserve this. No one deserves this. He took the PET - he took _me_ \- because he wanted to help you. Even after the way you and the others have been treating him, he still wanted to do something to help you. Because he cares. He's not a bully, Lan. He's the furthest thing from a bully there is." MegaMan hiccuped, as if he was holding back a sob. "And I don't want to see my brother and best friend turn into the very thing he hates because of a misunderstanding."

"I-I . . ." Lan couldn't seem to speak. Mute, he walked up to Chaud - who barely stopped himself from cringing away - and took his PET back with trembling hands. "MegaMan, I'm . . . I'm sorry."

Chaud quietly took the opportunity to back away. Both to give the Hikari twins some space and to put some distance between himself and Lan in case he started throwing punches again.

"I'm not the one you should be apologising to," MegaMan reminded Lan gently.

Lan raised his head to look at Chaud, who was unable to hide a tiny flinch. The sudden fear of the boy who had been his first human friend made him feel guilty, and the feeling only got worse when Lan's gaze darkened in sadness.

"I'm sorry," Lan blurted out. "F-for everything. I . . . This isn't gonna make it all better overnight, but . . . I'm sorry. I was stressed, and I was angry, and I took it all out on you because you were the easiest target."

"But?" MegaMan prompted.

Lan didn't hesitate. "That was wrong," he said, voice suddenly strong and firm. "I was wrong. There's no excuse for the way we . . . the way _I've_ been treating you. I'm so, so sorry, Chaud."

Chaud finally managed to find his own voice. "I-it's okay," he said quietly.

"It most certainly is not!" ProtoMan interrupted sharply. Chaud brought out his own PET and stared at ProtoMan with wide eyes. "You're not a scratching post for him to sharpen his claws on, Chaud. He's right - there _is_ no excuse for any of this. And he'd better make damn well sure that he finds a way to make it up to you, otherwise I'll figure out how to get into the real world and I'll beat some sense into his empty head if it's the last thing I do!"

"P-ProtoMan!" Chaud protested, shocked.

"No, he's right," Lan agreed. Chaud turned his surprised gaze to Lan, and the youngest Hikari shifted uncomfortably. "I _will_ make it up to you somehow. And if I screw up, then ProtoMan'll have to get in line - because I'll be the first to beat myself up for it."

"I don't think that's physically possible, Lan," MegaMan sighed.

"Don't care, I'll figure out how to do it somehow," Lan said firmly. He glanced at Chaud, scanning him quickly. "Did . . . did I . . . Do you hurt badly, anywhere? Because I think I hit you hard enough to bruise really badly."

"I'm fine," Chaud quickly assured him, even though he could already feel throbbing where Lan had hit him. "I've had worse."

"I know, but . . ." Lan sighed. "My mom can help out. She knows how to patch up bruises."

"Of course she does, she's had to put up with you getting into fights constantly," MegaMan chastised him. "A few bruises are nothing compared to how much trouble you get yourself into."

"Yeah, that's true," Lan agreed, with an awkward laugh. He smiled at Chaud. "So, come on. And, um, by the way . . ."

"Mm?" Chaud tilted his head a little.

"I . . . I'm really sorry for saying you're like World Three and about the 'you're not my friend' thing," Lan told him. "I really didn't mean that, I was just trying to hurt you and . . . and it worked too well. You're not like World Three at all, and . . . we're still friends. Or, well, I want to still be friends. I understand if you don't want to-"

"I wanna be friends," Chaud broke in. Lan looked surprised, and very pleased. Chaud was just relieved that Lan didn't actually hate him.

 **OOOOOO**

And the 'Lan hates Chaud' plot has come to an end! This is one of those parts of the fic that I've actually had planned ever since I decided to have MegaMan be in a bad place for about 80% of the fic. The solution would be that Chaud would take Lan's PET - without telling him, because it would be easier that way - and to take MegaMan to talk to someone who could understand what our favourite digital Blue Bomber is going through.

That someone is, naturally, Virus - whose backstory has finally been revealed by Zoet and Flight in this chapter. That was also planned by the way. God do I love writing bits of plot that I actually planned.

Most of the time I end up just writing whatever comes to mind, but occasionally I'll write a chapter or a scene that I've been thinking of ever since I started a fic, and I usually end up just sitting there and grinning at it for a while because dear god do my planned scenes and chapters look good in physical format.

And this applies to the entire chapter. Aside from my brief war of POVs at the start, everything here was more or less mapped out in my mind. The dialogue ended up being a bit different (mainly because I can't remember entire chapters of dialogue in my head) and Lan beating Chaud up was actually pretty much the only unplanned bit that showed up, but it was all awesome and I'm really happy with how it all turned out.

Anyway, next chapter we'll be back with more of Lan's POV. I'm debating whether or not to add in a scene with Maylu, Dex, Yai and Tory apologising to Chaud as well, but since it was mainly Lan who was the problem, I'm not as fussed with them. Maybe I'll have them apologise off-screen (or whatever the written equivalent is).

Oh yeah, who else liked ProtoMan's outburst? That was also a little bit unplanned, like Lan beating up Chaud, and I just thought I should add it in there because we've already seen that ProtoMan is extremely protective of the skunk-egghead we all know and love, and he's already expressed his disdain of Lan's treatment of Chaud.

But yeah this is more or less over, although Chaud is gonna be wary of Lan and the others for a little while (who wouldn't? They've been ignoring him for ages and Lan has just _beaten him up_ , anyone would be shaken by that).

Read and review!


	17. Chapter 17 - Patching It Up

Wow, okay, the last two chapters were longer than I'd wanted them to be . . . not that that's a bad thing, but I didn't expect them to have that much content, so . . .

This chapter will be truly chill, unlike the fake-chill chapters where shit still happens that is either Zoet Being Violent or Chaud Being Sad. Or, well, as chill as the chapter can even get considering I'm gonna see if I can write Haruka being Mom of the Year with quite literally everyone (mostly Chaud because let's face it, he needs a mom and ProtoMan can't really fill that role, nor can Arin because she is the most irresponsible human being on the planet).

That doesn't mean I'm about to start having Haruka ignore Lan in favour of Chaud. She's being Mom of the Year for a goddamn reason, and she is the best mom ever, even if she does let her son get into increasingly-dangerous situations.

Speaking of those increasingly-dangerous situations, I've finished watching ZEROthefirst and his buddy's playthroughs of _Team Colonel_ and _Team ProtoMan_! Which also means I'm done with watching _Battle Network 5_. I only have six left now, which I will be watching from these guys again because I'm actually enjoying their playthroughs.

Anyway, profiles!

/022fbi8b2zj7

Zoet.

/01ndi1falgd8

Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

Flight.

/026mkj34tsh1

The map.

/01lqxk014x6q

And the battle suit.

Maybe I should stop doing these, I'm pretty sure you guys have seen them enough to know they're important . . .

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"Honestly, why do kids always think the answer to everything is to fight?" Mom sighed as she dabbed a cold towel on Chaud's bruises.

"Not every kid does that," Lan protested, knowing that his argument was very weak. The look his mom gave him more or less confirmed it. "Well, I do, but most kids don't."

"I do too," Chaud piped up. "And so does . . . so do a lot of other kids. I think."

Lan wondered what Chaud had been about to say before he changed it halfway through the sentence, but he decided not to say anything. He'd only just gotten over his anger at Chaud for the past couple of weeks, and he didn't want to start anything again by accident - sure, he'd been the one to start it all, but as MegaMan frequently told him, he had a very bad habit of getting into fights for the sake of it sometimes.

And besides, the fact that Chaud was still a little scared of him made Lan far too ashamed and far too careful to start anything.

"Just keep the towel on for a minute," Mom instructed Chaud, stepping away. "I'll go and get some more ice water."

Chaud nodded and watched her leave, keeping the towel pressed onto his bruises like she'd told him. He winced, lifted it a little to check on them, and quickly held it back down.

" . . . I'm really sorry," Lan mumbled.

"It's fine," Chaud replied.

"Chaud-" ProtoMan began.

"It's. Fine," Chaud said firmly. ProtoMan went quiet, but Lan could practically feel the glare the red Navi was shooting his way.

Then he heard the quiet murmur of MegaMan's soothing voice, trying to calm ProtoMan's anger. Lan couldn't help but smile. After so long of not hearing MegaMan speak, this was . . . this was the greatest thing ever. And it had only taken him beating Chaud up to achieve it.

The smile slipped off his face and he cringed, looking away shamefully.

Chaud noticed this but he said nothing, only watching quietly. Lan guessed he was still wary of setting Lan off - a wrong word, one misstep, and he was probably thinking that Lan would fly off the handle and attack him again. Lan couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't overreact to anything, but he hated this. Chaud wasn't the type of guy who would be afraid of anyone, or if he was, he would never show it so obviously. Or, no, he wasn't being obvious about it, was he? It was just that Lan was noticing for the first time just how much damage he'd done to the boy he was supposed to be friends with.

 _Some friend I am,_ he thought disdainfully. _I spent half my time hating him and the other half talking about him behind his back. And now I've just beaten him up for trying to help me._

"Are you okay?" Chaud asked him suddenly.

Lan jumped, and looked back at him. "I'm the one who should be asking you that," he said.

Chaud just shrugged, being careful of his bruises. "I've had worse," he dismissed. "But emotional pain lasts a lot longer than physical pain. Don't tear yourself apart over this, Lan."

"It's hard not to," Lan admitted, quickly scanning Chaud and then looking away again.

Anything more they had to say had to wait until some later point, because Mom came back in with some ice water in a bowl. She took the towel from Chaud and dipped it in the water carefully, and then started dabbing it on him again.

"I'm glad you two have made up," she suddenly said, focusing on her task. "You've been avoiding each other for so long . . . and you were such good friends, too. I don't know exactly why this happened, but all I know - all I want to know - is that my sons are on the mend, and you've patched things up."

Mom looked at Lan, eyes shining with tears. Lan, for a moment, felt bad for making her cry before he realised that she was crying out of happiness.

She opened one arm to him. "Come here, Lan," Mom invited. He came over and she wrapped her arm around him, and then very gently wrapped the other around Chaud. "I'm just happy you're both alright. Please, don't make me worry like this, okay?"

Lan nodded into her shoulder, and then glanced at Chaud. He was looking very startled, but was also somewhat leaning into the hug.

"We'll try not to," Lan said, smiling.

 **oooo**

Later that same day, once Mom was done cleaning Chaud up, Lan tried to explain to his friends that Chaud was no longer Public Enemy No. 1. It was kind of hard to defend someone that all of his friends - aside from maybe Tory - were determined to low-key hate, especially when said someone was standing right next to him.

"And why should we suddenly act all friendly?" Maylu demanded, hands on her hips in her classic 'stubborn' pose. "You said it yourself - he used MegaMan as an excuse to get into the city, _and_ he abandoned us the first opportunity he got. What kind of half-decent human being would do that?"

Lan really didn't want ProtoMan to make good on his promise to come into the real world and beat some sense into everyone, so he tried to calm Maylu down. Once he got her convinced, it would be easy to convince everyone else, who were watching through narrowed or curious eyes.

"Except he has a good reason," Lan argued. He didn't know what that reason was exactly - he had a pretty decent idea, after the Inky incident - but he had to make sure Maylu understood at least this much. "And he can't tell us what it is because it's all top-secret and stuff."

"You were the one who got mad at him for being all secretive to start off with," Yai reminded him, a light scowl on her face. "You're the one who said he pretty much always have some sort of agenda whenever he hangs around us!"

Chaud glanced at Lan, as if asking whether or not he'd actually said something like that.

"I didn't . . . exactly say that," Lan said hesitantly, painfully aware that he was lying - at least a little. Those hadn't been his exact words, but it was pretty close. "But, guys, listen-"

"Why are you suddenly defending him, anyway?" Maylu asked, narrowing her eyes.

"He helped MegaMan," Lan burst out. Maylu looked astonished. "I mean, he kinda stole my PET last night, and then when he brought it back, MegaMan was talking again."

"He stole your PET?" Dex frowned.

"Because he wanted to help MegaMan," Lan insisted, wishing that they wouldn't just focus on the bad parts - even though he'd been doing that exact same thing up until very, very recently.

Yes, it was slightly hypocritical, but still . . .

"I-I . . ."

Lan, surprised, shot a glance at Chaud, who had apparently decided that letting Lan do all the talking was obviously not getting them anywhere. The others also turned their gazes towards him, and Chaud almost shrunk back from the combined looks. But then he caught Lan's eye and seemed to calm down a little.

"I can't excuse myself for . . . abandoning you," Chaud said. Lan just barely held back a flinch - Chaud was using words they'd put in his mouth. "But when I took his PET, I was . . . I was scared."

"Scared?" Maylu scoffed. "I didn't think someone like you could ever get _scared_."

"I was scared he'd wake up and start shouting," Chaud muttered, dropping his gaze to his feet. "I didn't want to face him if I got caught, so, yes, I stole his PET. But I did it because I wanted to help him. I wanted to help MegaMan. And . . . and I didn't know what else to do."

"If you had an idea to help MegaMan, why didn't you tell us?" Yai challenged him.

"Would you have listened?" Chaud asked quietly.

That made them pause.

Maylu and Dex exchanged a wary but slightly puzzled look, and Yai opened her mouth only to close it again without having said another word. Tory was just watching everyone quietly, but when Chaud asked his question, he spoke up.

"I doubt we would have," he said. Everyone looked at him now, and he peered back calmly, a start contrast to the nervous Chaud. "Think about it - the way we've been treating him, it's no wonder he didn't try to come to us. I don't think the thought even occurred to him until after he'd done it. And honestly, I don't blame him. Besides, maybe it was for the best that he did this on his own. We've all tried our best to help MegaMan, but we've been trying too much. Maybe what MegaMan needed was someone who hadn't tried to help him yet."

Chaud looked even more uncomfortable at that, but he said nothing.

" . . . You have a point . . ." Maylu admitted. "But why does this mean we suddenly forgive him?"

"It's him who needs to forgive us, not the other way around," Lan corrected her. "And if he doesn't want to, he shouldn't."

"I want to," Chaud said quietly. Lan cast him a grateful look.

Maylu, Dex and Yai, however, still needed a little more convincing.

"Guys, please," Lan begged. "He's already apologised a million times - for something he didn't even do - and I . . . I think this has gone on long enough."

"You started it," Maylu reminded him, though her tone was uncertain now.

"And I'm ending it," Lan said firmly. "I talked to MegaMan while Mom was patching Chaud up, and he made me think - really, really think - about everything that's happened so far. I don't want us to hate Chaud anymore. I just wanna be friends again. Please, guys?"

His friends exchanged glances again, silently holding a small debate. After a moment, Maylu sighed and stepped forward, glancing first at Lan and then fixing her gaze on Chaud.

"You can't expect us to be perfectly fine with you right away," she informed him, "but we'll try. And if . . . if you want to go off on your own, that's fine. Just stop using us as an excuse to get to places, okay?"

"I'll try," Chaud replied, smiling slightly.

Maylu nodded, and then looked at Lan. "What'd you mean by 'patching Chaud up', by the way?"

Lan felt his cheeks redden in embarrassment. "I, uh," he stammered. "I kinda beat him up when he tried to give me back my PET."

His friends stared at him, open-mouthed in astonishment.

"I've had worse," Chaud quickly reassured them.

"Please stop saying that," ProtoMan sighed.

"Well, it's true," Chaud muttered defensively.

 **oooo**

Lan spent the rest of the day with MegaMan. He showed his Navi/twin the pictures he'd already shown him, because MegaMan had asked to see them properly, and as Lan suspected, he'd loved them. He immediately asked to actually go visit the networks and districts tomorrow, and Lan had never been happier.

"It was kind of like watching a movie, but not really paying attention," MegaMan explained, when Lan tentatively asked what he'd been feeling over the past few weeks. "I . . . can't really describe it too well, but that's the best I can come up with. It's kind of . . . hard to remember exactly how I was feeling, because now I'm, well, not better, but I'm going to get there eventually. It was hard and I guess I just sort of shut down or something."

"Emergency shut-down?" Lan guessed, frowning. He'd thought emergency shut-downs for Navis meant something like jacking out or going into forced sleep-mode, but maybe it had been so weird for MegaMan because of his circumstances.

"I . . ." MegaMan hesitated. "I'm not sure. I don't think anyone would be able to answer that question." He took a deep breath and looked Lan in the eyes. "But I won't do it again. Or I'll try not to. I'm really sorry for making you and everyone else worry."

"You don't have to apologise," Lan said, smiling.

An hour or two later, Lan wandered around looking for Chaud - he was thinking that maybe they could hang out together, like they used to before they got into that huge fight - but Chaud was nowhere to be seen.

Lan's first reaction was anger. After all this, he'd thought that Chaud would at least _try_ to hang around them. But then he forced himself to calm down, and he remembered the Inky incident, and also reminded himself that he shouldn't get angry at Chaud for something he couldn't actually control. Top-secret meant top-secret, and if Chaud couldn't tell anyone (other than Dad), then Lan couldn't fault him for it.

So he decided to instead just watch a movie or two with MegaMan. Dad was taking a break from the Navi Research Labs, so he and Mom came into Lan's room at some point and sat down to watch some movies with their sons. His friends had also stayed behind too, so when Lan's room started getting a little crowded, Mom suggested that they relocate to her and Dad's room because it was bigger.

The movie marathon was great and Lan loved every minute of it, if only because MegaMan was back to his usual self and was pointing out obvious plot-holes and where the writers/characters were blatantly ignoring basic physics. Normally Lan told MegaMan to stop complaining because it was just a movie, but this time he didn't, because he was just too happy to hear his brother's complaining.

Heck, he'd probably wake up to MegaMan's 'GET UP LAN' and be happy about it.

Later in the day, Chaud came back from wherever he usually went during the day, and stepped through the hotel lobby as if he was afraid that he'd set off a land mine or something.

When he spotted Lan waiting for him on one of the sofas in the lobby, he froze, looking like a deer caught in headlights.

"Hi," Lan said as brightly as he could, while guilt churned his stomach. "I waited for you - everyone else is already at dinner."

"O-okay," Chaud replied, looking utterly bewildered.

He watched as Lan got up and stretched, because he'd been sitting there for a while now, and then Lan gestured for Chaud to follow him.

At dinner, Lan drew Chaud into their conversation. It was incredibly awkward, because they'd been doing nothing but ignoring him or glaring at him since basically the day they first came here, but Lan wasn't the only one who made an effort to make Chaud feel better about this. It was impossible to act as though they'd never been ignoring him, but Maylu and the others tried to be as nice as they could, so at least there was that.

Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed his parents watching the group proudly, and Lan started to feel better about all this effort - even if it was awkward.

When they were done with dinner, Chaud sort of withdrew to his room like he normally did, and Lan didn't want to push anything so he left Chaud alone. He went up to the roof and looked out across the Haven District's cavern, a sight that had become very familiar over the past few weeks.

" . . . This place is really cool," MegaMan said, after he'd had a good look at what they could see from the roof. "I can't believe they made an entire city underground."

"The history of this place is pretty cool, too," Lan agreed. He paused. "Well, not 'cool' as in, you know, cool, but . . . I mean, the original city being bombed isn't cool . . . but the fact that they did all of this after it got destroyed was cool. Uh."

"I know what you mean," MegaMan laughed, and what a beautiful sound that was.

Lan couldn't stop the grin that spread across his face. He didn't want to anyway.

They sat in silence for a while, just watching as the district's Sun Pyramid slowly changed colour to match the sky aboveground. MegaMan marvelled at the Sun Pyramid, and Lan promised to take him there and show him the network inside it tomorrow.

"Can . . . can I join you?" a tentative voice asked.

Lan glanced over his shoulder, surprised, and then his look softened when he spotted Chaud hovering uncertainly in the doorway of the entrance to the roof.

"I can leave if you wanna be alone," Chaud offered, already inching back.

"No, it's fine," Lan said, smiling. "I don't mind. You and ProtoMan helped MegaMan, after all. I'd say that warrants you getting a spot on the roof with us. Right, MegaMan?"

"For sure!" MegaMan agreed cheerfully.

Chaud came over and sat next to Lan. He brought out his PET and set it next to MegaMan's, and ProtoMan looked between his operator and Lan for a few long moments before letting out a frustrated but resigned sigh.

"You are determined to be friends with people who hurt you, aren't you?" ProtoMan shook his head fondly.

"They don't hurt me, exactly," Chaud protested.

ProtoMan looked like he was about to say something to the contrary, but he glanced at Lan and stopped himself.

"I know they don't," he said instead. "I just don't like seeing you so miserable."

"Sorry," Lan almost automatically put in.

ProtoMan glanced at him. "Well," he said quietly, "at least you're making an effort. I can't fault you for that, I suppose."

"Heh," Lan mumbled. He blinked and looked at Chaud. "Hey, um . . ."

"What is it?" Chaud asked.

Lan had so many questions he actually wanted to ask, but he couldn't figure out which ones he could ask without compromising Chaud's top-secret stuff. He decided to settle for the easiest one, which he assumed was okay because he'd seen them in public. Sort of.

"Who was that guy you were with a few days ago?" Lan asked him.

Chaud gave him a puzzled look. "What guy?" he wondered.

Oh, right, that wasn't okay either. Nevermind then.

"It's okay if you can't tell me," Lan said, deciding to leave it. Chaud still continued to look puzzled, but Lan didn't ask. Instead, he chose another question, which he felt was probably not as safe but also felt that he had to ask. "So, how's ProtoMan being doing? Any, uh, you know, glitches?"

The puzzled look cleared from Chaud's expression, to be replaced with a slightly pained one as he glanced at his Navi briefly before turning back to Lan.

"Just a couple of weird ones," Chaud admitted. "Nothing we can't handle."

"If . . . if there are any problems, maybe you can take ProtoMan to my dad," Lan suggested.

"He's busy with MegaMan."

"I'm sure he wouldn't mind, especially after what you did for us," Lan said boldly.

"What I did for you?" Chaud repeated. Now he was wary, but was trying to act as though he had no idea what Lan was talking about.

That was okay, Lan decided. He was determined not to get angry about this, and even though he'd sort of slipped up earlier (no need to tell Chaud that, he didn't want to make the poor guy feel worse), he wasn't going to make any mistakes if he could help it.

He looked out over the district and smiled, and then grabbed his PET and stood up.

"I'm gonna head back down now, it's getting kinda late," Lan said. "You coming?"

"I think I'll stay up here a while," Chaud decided, blinking up at him. "It's . . . kinda nice up here."

Lan nodded and headed back to the roof's entrance. Just before he went through, however, he turned around and locked eyes with Chaud.

"You really did a lot for us back then," he said, "so thank you . . . Foreigner."

Chaud's eyes widened, and Lan grinned, waving, and then he turned and went back to his hotel room.

 **OOOOOO**

I kinda find it hard to write things like this - I'm honestly better with banter and the occasional heartwarming gesture like Zoet did a few chapters ago. So I've been writing this chill-chapter, which is considerably shorter than all the others, feeling extremely awkward and also as though I was . . . kind of forcing it out.

But I had to write it, because I can't just leave things at Lan apologising. It wasn't just him, so even if I felt awkward writing it, I needed to make a scene up for everyone. Sure, maybe they didn't exactly apologise, but they did feel that they were in the right - if only because they don't know what Chaud's doing.

But yeah, this little subplot is officially over. It's not completely over, since our little skunk-boy is still wary, but they're all talking again so his only friends aren't just three Navis and a lunatic.

I think there was something else I wanted to say here, but I've gone and forgotten it while I was writing . . .

Oh well.

Next chapter we'll still be in Lan's POV, because I want to try a few scenes from his perspective.

Read and review!


	18. Chapter 18 - Landslides, Part 1

I remember what I wanted to say last AN - it was kind of an explanation as to why I find it very difficult to write apology/making up scenes.

Basically, I find it difficult to write those because I have no real-life experience with that kind of stuff. Any friends that I've fallen out with, I've never forgiven (for very, very good reasons) and if I've fell out of contact with anyone, I've just never gotten back in contact with them. So the whole 'make up and apologise' concept is basically foreign to me.

I've seen it a lot in fiction, especially when there's something going on similar to what I had Chaud go through, but I can't really identify with it so I can't understand it, therefore I can't write it properly.

But enough of my sad excuse of a friendship life, it's time for profiles!

/022fbi8b2zj7

Zoet.

/01ndi1falgd8

Virus.

/0784ncmxtbv

Flight.

/026mkj34tsh1

The map.

/01lqxk014x6q

And the battle suit.

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

This chapter is gonna end up being the last chapter I do this in, since I'm kinda getting extremely sick of it by this point. If you didn't get the point in any of the other ANs, these links are important if you wanna know what Zoet and her Navis look like, along with the map to the city and the battle suit for the Underground NetBattlers.

Anyway, like I said, we're continuing with Lan's POV because there's a scene or two I want to write from his POV. We'll be starting right in with a conversation between him and Chaud, because that's one of two scenes and I can't think of anything else I wanna do.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

The next morning, Lan was surprised to see Chaud still hanging around. Maybe he really was doing what Lan had thought he'd do after he and everyone else had finally gotten over their anger?

"Hey," Lan said, stepping out of his room just as Chaud was halfway down the hall. Chaud paused to let Lan catch up, and together they went down to breakfast. "So, you taking a day off from . . . wherever?"

"Oh, uh, no," Chaud replied, shaking his head. "School's started up again, so I'll be disappearing during the evenings now."

"Why would school starting up again make a difference?" Lan wondered.

"Uh."

"The people we work with believe that Chaud is in school," ProtoMan quickly explained, because Chaud apparently didn't do well with being put on the spot anymore. "We're not going to contradict that, so the time got changed and now we'll be working in the evenings instead of during the day. We also may end up doing all-nighters."

"So you might not come back sometimes," Lan summarised. "That's alright, at least I have a vague idea of what you're doing. And, you know, if there are any glitches in ProtoMan-"

"I can go to your dad, I know," Chaud finished, smiling slightly.

Later, Chaud actually came with them to the Navi Research Labs. He hadn't really been there properly since they'd first come here (the Inky incident didn't count), and any information he'd gotten had been second-hand from Dad, so Lan spent a while explaining exactly what was going on. He also explained this to MegaMan, because he'd also sort of been absent.

And, of course, now that MegaMan was sort of better, Professor Hestia was more than happy. He helped explain things too.

The day was spent in a much more happier mood than any other previous day. The team of scientists working on a method to fix MegaMan's spine could obviously sense the mending bond between the group of kids (plus MegaMan's own recovery meant there was general celebrations all around), so the atmosphere in the data-bone reconstruction room was a lot more cheerful than it usually was - which was fairly cheerful to begin with, so things ended up being a little bit overcharged.

"Is it normally like this?" Chaud wondered, staring wide-eyed at the group of freaky scientists running around.

The guy who drank far too much coffee had decided that he needed about fifty more cups that day and was the most hyper that Lan had ever seen him, while three others were running around trying to catch him. Two more scientists were cheerfully arguing very loudly about codes and algorithms, and about half of the team were being loud in general.

It was all very startling and even Lan's dad was surprised. Lan and his friends just kept to their usual corner, out of the way, in case anyone got too excited and ran into them.

"It's normally calmer," Maylu replied, too surprised at the sudden energy of the scientists to remember to be awkward.

"Pfff, this is nothing," a new voice broke in. They all glanced up and saw Arin Zaliki wandering over from the doors. She grinned at them, her gaze lingering on Chaud a little longer than everyone else. Lan was a bit confused - what did that look mean?

He knew Chaud was Foreigner (he had yet to tell everyone else and Chaud probably didn't want him to, anyway), but he wasn't sure what Arin's connection to the Shades was.

"You should've seen these guys a few years ago," Arin went on. "First time a Nowhere City Navi broke a data-bone, and they all freaked out because this room finally had a proper use other than helping with the theory of creating a NetNavi. They don't get much to do other than that, and while it's a shame that Navis get injured like this, they do get pretty excited sometimes."

"They didn't act like that when we first came here," Yai noted, looking the crazy woman up and down with a scrutinous eye. It was pretty clear that Arin was a very capable scientist, but her wild personality made it a bit hard to believe at times.

Although Lan had only seen her a few times, since she came in to the data-bone reconstruction room only once every few days. He wasn't even remotely sure what she did when she wasn't here, let alone when she actually was here. Professor Hestia had mentioned she was a 'jack of all trades', whatever that was.

But she had a very powerful Navi, that was for sure. Jackal had managed to delete one of the Inkys from a few days ago pretty easily, after all. If nothing else, she had to be a capable NetBattler.

"They didn't act all excited because MegaMan's injury is the worst we've ever seen since Navis were created," Arin explained. "Well, at least the worst data-bone injury. There have been worse injuries and other Navis have been crippled, but not in the same way."

She and Chaud exchanged a glance, and Lan wondered once again exactly how these two knew each other.

"So they were being respectful?" Tory guessed.

"Bingo, kiddo," Arin agreed happily. "And now that everything's starting to get better, they're being their usual weird selves. All scientists in the Navi Research Labs are like this, trust me."

"And what about you?" Yai was clearly still suspicious. Once, when Arin had left after a brief visit a while ago, she'd actually flat-out told Lan and the others that she didn't exactly like Arin Zaliki. Something to do with how flippant she was.

"Technically I don't work here - I'm basically freelance." Arin shrugged. "But hey, that's neither here nor there. You kids wanna come do something fun? All I ever see you guys do is sit here in this corner - and I'm glad to see you've made up with little skunk-boy over there-"

"Skunk-boy? Really? In Electopia it's egghead, and in Savaro it's skunk-boy. What's up with these dumb nicknames?" Chaud muttered.

Chaud had a nickname? What? And why did it feel like Lan had heard that nickname before . . .?

Lan wasn't the only one confused. His friends were looking at Chaud with a mixture of mild suspicion and puzzlement.

"What're you talking about?" Dex asked him. "No one's ever called you skunk-boy. You look more like you've got an egg on your head."

Chaud moaned something about eggs and buried his face in his hands.

"We met once or twice and got talking," Arin explained, grinning at his discomfort. "Little kiddie's adorable, isn't he? I compared him to a skunk once and the nickname stuck."

"Why?" Chaud sighed, looking up. "Why do I always get stuck with the dumb stuff?"

"Ah, stop complaining, there are worse nicknames out there," Arin dismissed. "Anywho, I asked if you kiddies wanna come and do something fun instead of just hanging around here for half the day."

"What'd you have in mind?" Lan asked, before his friends could start trying to interrogate Chaud again.

"Just a little Landslides, nothing special," Arin said.

For some reason, Chaud looked very interested.

"Landslides?" Maylu repeated. She was the exact opposite - she looked panicked. "You play with landslides here?"

"No, no, not real landslides," the crazy scientist assured her. "It's just a name. Landslides is a game - you can have as many players as you want, and as big a playing field as you need. You decide on a 'safe point', which everyone starts a certain distance from, and you all have to race to get there first. The first person there wins, and the last one 'dies', since the metaphorical landslide would have 'killed' them in-game."

"Have there ever been real landslides during this game?" Tory asked tenatively.

"Nope," Arin replied, shaking her head. "But on a more serious note, the game is actually good practise for a real landslide - the aim of the game is to keep moving and head for the one place that's safe in a field full of dangers. The racing is just the competitive part added in for the benefit of the game version. Some military organisations play a city-wide version of Landslides during War Games, actually."

" _War Games_!?" Dex and Yai repeated shrilly.

"Don't worry about it," Arin said dismissively. "Just a phrase. But do you wanna play Landslides?"

"Yes," Chaud immediately replied, before anyone else had a chance to think about it.

They all stared at him.

Chaud seemed to realise he was being a bit too eager, and he shuffled uncomfortably in his seat. "It . . . it sounds interesting," he said.

"Well, I guess that settles it!" Arin exclaimed cheerfully, clapping her hands together. Lan and the others whipped their heads around to stare at her, shocked. "Meet me at the Science Station in a bit, okay? I know the perfect place to play the game. But be prepared for a walk, we can't get there by sitting on a tram."

She turned and practically skipped out of the room. As soon as she was gone, everyone rounded on Chaud and he shrank back from their glares.

"We don't even know how to play!" Yai exploded.

"She just explained it!" he tried to defend himself.

Maylu was having none of it. "What if we didn't even want to play?" she snapped. "Did you think about that?"

"I thought you guys liked playing these kind of games," Chaud said quietly, now looking very discouraged. He glanced at the doors, as if he was considering trying to escape, but he was practically in the middle of their group and they were blocking all routes.

"We barely even know that woman," Dex informed him, scowling. "'Sides, you don't speak for us."

"Yeah, I got that," Chaud said, looking at his lap.

"That wasn't exactly fair, you know," Lan said, frowning. "We didn't even get a chance to talk it over."

"M'sorry," Chaud mumbled.

"We can't refuse without offending Arin, now," Tory added, looking somewhat apologetic. "I don't actually know if she would get offended, though, but it'd certainly make _me_ feel bad if I had to say no when she looked so excited to play that Landslides game."

This time Chaud didn't reply, but he looked as though he wanted to the ground to open up and swallow him whole.

"Well, whatever we think, now we gotta do it," Yai huffed. "C'mon, let's get going."

"Maybe we'll end up having fun after all?" Tory suggested lightly.

"Eh." Yai shrugged.

"I'll go tell Dad where we're going," Lan offered, pointing over his shoulder where he assumed his dad was. His friends nodded (Chaud just kept his gaze fixed firmly on his lap) and stood up. While he went over to his dad, they made their way over to the doors and waited for him.

It took him a moment to get Dad's attention, because he was busy discussing something with Professor Hestia. As soon as Dad noticed Lan hovering nearby, he broke off the conversation and smiled at his son.

"What's up?" he asked. Then he noticed the others standing by the doors. "Oh, are you all heading out somewhere?"

"Ah, yeah, Arin came and invited us to play something called Landslides?" Lan shrugged, because he was still unsure about the game. "So, we're going out. I just thought I'd let you know. Um, is it okay? Are we needed for anything here?" As he asked, he glanced at Professor Hestia, since he would have a better idea of whether or not any of them would be needed.

"Landslides!" Professor Hestia exclaimed, a wide grin on his face. "I used to play that all the time when I was younger - I never won of course, I was never fast enough, but it was fun all the same. There's nothing quite like racing along the rocks and streets against your friends. Of course you can go, if there's anything we need you for urgently we can easily just email you. Go have fun! Oh, what's happened with your friend? I believe you said his name was Chaud? He doesn't look too happy."

Dad blinked, checked on Chaud, and then looked at Lan for an explanation.

Lan couldn't quite meet his eyes.

"Whatever happened, I'm sure he'll get over it," Dad said after a moment. By his tone, Lan just knew he was gonna be hearing about this later. "Go and have fun, Lan. Lord knows you need to do something fun, after everything that's happened . . . and besides, I don't think it's good that you've been keeping yourself practically confined indoors for the past few weeks. Go on now."

Somehow Lan was feeling both happy and ashamed of himself.

 **oooo**

"What'd Dad mean by 'keeping yourself practically confined indoors'?" MegaMan asked later, after they'd met Arin at the Science Station. The crazy scientist was now leading them through some abandoned tunnels in the tramline, apparently taking them further north of the city to a secret place that only she and a select few people knew about.

"I didn't really want to go anywhere while you were, um, the way you were," Lan explained.

"O-oh," MegaMan said quietly. He also sounded a bit guilty, so Lan brought out his PET and looked MegaMan square in the eyes.

"That was my choice," he said firmly. "I didn't want to go exploring until you were better, because then we could go and explore properly together - and now that you're starting to get better, we really can go explore! I mean, I did kinda wanna do that today after we were done at the Research Labs, but I guess Arin's game might be cool too."

"We have all week and then some to explore," MegaMan agreed. "I wonder if there's any way for Navis to join in with the game?"

"Maybe there'll be some sort of network when we get there, and you guys can play your own version?" Lan suggested.

"That'd be fun!"

What wasn't fun was the amount of walking that they were doing. After half an hour, Yai started complaining about being tired, so Tory offered to carry her. She refused immediately, saying that a true lady never asked for help, but fifteen minutes later she relented and clambered gratefully onto his back. By that point, everyone was tired, except for Arin herself and also Chaud.

Lan sped up a little so he was walking closer to them, and caught the edge of a conversation - they were talking about the _Harry Potter_ movies, which Lan had watched before but hadn't been too interested in. He was pretty sure Chaud had once told him that he never really had much time to bother with movies and stuff like that, but the way those two were talking, it sounded as though Chaud had actually watched them with Arin and someone else called . . . Zoet?

Wait, wasn't that the name of the messy-haired boy with the headphones that Lan had spotted talking with Chaud a while ago?

He dropped back and plodded alongside his friends, who all looked like they needed a rest but didn't want to speak up. The abandoned tunnels gradually got darker as they went deeper, but still no one said anything. Arin knew where she was going and they could use their PETs for lights, so the darkness was fine. The tiredness was not.

They finally arrived at the secret place several minutes later, much to everyone's relief. The place they emerged into was a small cavern - well, 'small' wasn't exactly the word for it, since the place was still pretty big, but in comparison to the size of the caverns that were home to the city's districts, this one was relatively small. There were crumbled rockfalls and rocky shelves all over the cavern, and it seemed more wide than it was tall, because the ceiling was far lower down than the district's caverns. Here and there were bits of plants growing in between the rocks and over them, created weird and wonderful patterns. Quite a lot of the walls seemed to be entirely covered in sheets of ivy.

And in the centre of the cavern was a massive, sparkling lake.

Lan was so enthused at the sight of the underground lake that he didn't even stop to wonder how he could still see when the size of the cavern should have logically prevented them from doing that, even with the light from their PETs.

"This is one of the caverns that the builders originally wanted to use for another district," Arin informed them, stopping just in front of the rocky shore and turning to face them with a grin. "They stopped construction because the walls were unstable, but this all happened decades ago and the rocks have become more stable since then. But the place was forgotten as time went by, until one day I was exploring some of the abandoned tunnels with my daughter, and she stumbled upon this place. Kiddies, welcome to Nowhere Lake."

"How come we can see?" Maylu asked the obvious question.

"Glowing plant life," was Arin's response. When all she got were disbelieving looks, she gestured around. "No, really! These plants are bioluminescent, and sort of solar-powered too. Some of the plants are actually aboveground, taking in sunlight during the day. Since the rest of the plants are down here, in the darkness, that means they pretty much glow twenty-four-seven. This lake actually has two names - the first is the public name, or as public as a secret lake can get, and the second is the Shining Lake. The bioluminescent plants is the reason behind the second name, obviously."

"Hey, MegaMan, what does biolumi-whatever mean?" Lan asked quietly.

"It means living organisms that glow in the dark," MegaMan explained. "Such as these plants, as Arin said. And she's right - look at that vine there! Plants are living things, so these are classed as 'bioluminescent'. Bio coming from the fact that they're alive, and luminescent referring to their glow-in-the-dark properties."

"Wow . . ." Lan murmured. "That's really cool."

Arin clapped her hands together, getting their attention.

"So!" she said brightly. "Does anyone want to hear the exact rules of Landslides before we start, or are we fine to set the 'safe point'?"

"I'd like to hear the full rules," Maylu said, raising her hand like she was in class.

"Great! It's not often I get to explain these rules, it's really fun. Also, no need to raise your hand, I may be a scientist and an inventor but I am certainly not a teacher," Arin said. "Right then. The basic aim of Landslides is to get to the 'safe point', which is often a fixed point in the chosen field. One person acts as a referee of sorts, as they go straight to the 'safe point' and declare the winner and loser of the game. Three players is the minimum for how many can play because of this. Anyway, no matter how many players you actually have, they all start from the exact same place to make it fair on everyone. Once the referee is in place, they send a message to the players' PETs, and the game starts. You have to race across the field of wherever it is you're playing, dodging whatever natural obstacles you can."

"Are we allowed to interfere with other players?" Dex asked. He almost raised his hand but remembered what Arin said and jerked it back down quickly.

"Yes, but only to a certain extent," Arin replied, looking pleased that someone had asked that. "Harmless things like blocking their path or confusing them are fine, but if you do anything to actually harm them on purpose, you'll be disqualified from the game. If you only hurt someone by accident, then the referee will decide whether or not to disqualify you based on how seriously injured the other player is. Since the game's aim is to essentially pretend you're about to be caught in a landslide, there have been incidents where some people will actually try to cause _real_ landslides in order to hinder their opponents. That's also not allowed, since we're way underground and that could quite literally bring the entire ceiling down on our heads."

Ouch.

Lan glanced up at the low ceiling - still fairly high, but again, compared to how high the district caverns were, it was pretty low - and winced. He didn't want to imagine that much rock tumbling onto his head.

"The first person to make it to the 'safe point' is the winner of the game," Arin went on. "And as I said before, the loser is the last to make it back, and they are 'killed' by the metaphorical landslide that the game is based around. The aim of the game is to get to the 'safe point' as quickly as possible, so points are awarded for how fast you can get there. The points are entirely superficial and basically just for bragging rights, but it makes the game more fun if you try to imagine the fastest way to get to the 'safe point'. Now, I want everyone to remember that there are still real dangers in playing this game, even if you all know the basic rules. Natural obstacles mean that some places can be more dangerous than others, and in the Shining Lake cavern, there's a particular patch of rocks that are very unstable. I'll have Jackal send a map to each of your PETs so your Navis can help you navigate through the cavern, and that map will be marked with where the 'safe point' is and also where the unstable patch of rocks are. If you have to double back to avoid them, do so, because I will not be happy if any of you risk your lives for the sake of winning a game."

She gave them all a surprisingly-stern look. Lan guessed she'd gotten it from being a mother, even if she said her daughter didn't really take her seriously.

At this moment, Lan could definitely take her seriously. Even Yai, who had already stated that she didn't think much of her, was listening intently and would no doubt tell Glide to plot a route through the Shining Lake cavern that would avoid the unstable patch of rocks.

"I'll be the referee, so stay here while I get over to the 'safe point'," Arin said. "Once I do, I'll have Jackal send you an email with the map attached, and then you can all start whenever you want. Oh, and don't prioritise speed over your own safety. See you at the 'safe point', kiddies!"

With that said, Arin bounded away along the rocky shore of the Shining Lake.

Lan and his friends immediately turned toward each other and began to discuss the game.

"Now that the rules have been explained, I think I might actually enjoy this," Maylu said thoughtfully. "I'm still a little worried about the cavern being unstable, though."

"Don't worry, Maylu, I'll keep us well away from the patch of rocks - and besides, Arin said the cavern itself isn't unstable anymore, so it should be safe," Roll reassured her operator.

"The keywords here being 'should be'," Maylu muttered. "We may not cause landslides ourselves, but nature sure as heck can."

"We'll just avoid the worst places," Tory said. "I'm sure if we ask, Arin'll give us properly-marked maps. Not just with the 'safe point' and the unstable patch of rocks, but anything else that might be a danger to us."

"Good idea," Lan replied, "except none of us has Arin's email address."

Tory paused. "Ah," he said awkwardly. "That could be a problem."

Lan glanced at Chaud, just out of curiosity - he seemed to know Arin better than any of them, so maybe he would have her email address - but he was absorbed in conversation with ProtoMan. Chaud was standing a little ways apart from Lan and the others, so all he could make out was a quiet murmur, but since he was busy Lan decided not to bother him.

"We'll just have to rely on ourselves," Dex decided importantly, puffing his chest out and smacking it with a fist. "No better way to get through a dangerous game such as this, after all!"

"And you would know this how, exactly?" Yai asked scornfully. "None of us have ever played this game before."

"Aw, we should've asked her before she left," Lan sighed. "Too bad none of us thought about it . . ."

They waited around for several minutes before MegaMan and the other Navis alerted their NetOps to the email from Arin that would signify the start of the game.

"And she sent the map, too," MegaMan said, pulling the map data out of the email. He examined it, and then jerked back in surprise.

"What's up?" Lan asked.

Before MegaMan had a chance to answer, Yai let out a delighted exclamation.

"She sent us properly-marked maps!" she cried. "Look, it even shows us which areas are more unstable than others!"

"Wow," Tory said, wide-eyed in surprise. "How did she know to give us this? I thought she was only gonna give us the other one . . ."

Lan, with a sneaking suspicion he knew exactly what had happened, glanced at Chaud. He was still holding his PET but was no longer talking to ProtoMan - instead he was very carefully watching Lan and the others, trying to look as inconspicuous as possible.

Lan caught his eye and mouthed 'thank you'. Chaud only blinked and turned away, back to ProtoMan.

"Alright, I guess we start now," Lan said, getting everyone's attention.

"Glide, plot a route that goes nowhere near that unstable patch Arin told us about," Yai, predictably, told her Navi. "And make sure it gets us to the 'safe point' first, too."

"As you wish, Miss Yai," Glide replied formally.

"Man, the 'safe point' is all the way on the other side of the cavern," Dex muttered. "How're we supposed to make it over there fast?"

"Well, if kids in Savaro can do this for fun, so can we!" Lan exclaimed, pumping his fist in the air determinedly. "I'm gonna go this way!"

"Lan, wait, I haven't plotted a course yet!" MegaMan cried as Lan raced off, eager to be the winner of Landslides.

"Winning this game is gonna be easy!"

 **oooo**

"Winning this game is impossible," Lan gasped some time later.

"I told you to wait," MegaMan scolded, "but did you listen? No, you didn't. Now I have to make a route for you, not from the starting point, but from wherever we are now."

"How long'll that take?" Lan asked, sitting down to rest his aching legs. He probably shouldn't have run so fast. Maybe if he was skating, then it'd be fine, but since he was climbing over rocks and running over plants and whatever else, it probably wasn't the best idea to skate.

"Well, I need to figure out where in the cavern you are, so it may take a while," MegaMan warned him. "Meanwhile, you can rest and hopefully not run off into potential life-threatening danger."

"Yeah, yeah," Lan sighed, leaning against a rock. Honestly, he was happy that MegaMan was feeling better now, but did he have to nag so much?

The thought brought a small smile to his face. Outwardly, he groaned about MegaMan's nagging, but now that he'd experienced a few weeks with MegaMan being completely silent, he was secretly glad to have his brother back to normal - or, well, mostly back to normal. At some point he knew he'd be back to genuinely complaining about the nagging, but for now he was fine with it.

Not that he'd ever tell MegaMan that. He'd never hear the end of it otherwise.

"Okay," MegaMan reported a couple of minutes later, "I've figured out where in the cavern we are, and I can get you to the 'safe point' from here. We're also right near the unstable patch of rocks, so tread carefully until I tell you we're clear of them, okay?"

"Oh, man, I almost ran right into it?" Lan moaned. "I'm so stupid."

"Yep," his twin agreed cheerfully. "The stupidest."

"Thanks," Lan muttered.

He got up carefully, still a little sore from his mad dash, and started off in the direction MegaMan told him to go. Apparently it was quicker to skirt around the rocks rather than plot a course to avoid them directly, but since they weren't actually heading through the patch, MegaMan thought it would be fine. Hopefully Arin would think the same, but with a little luck there wouldn't be any need to tell her that, if he'd just kept going for a few more steps, Lan would've ran straight out onto the patch.

Probably a good thing he wasn't skating, otherwise he might be buried under piles of rocks right now.

Some time later, Lan spotted someone walking a few metres ahead of him. No one else he'd ever met had that dual-coloured hair, so Lan knew immediately who it was.

Chaud didn't seem to notice anyone coming up behind, as he was too busy clambering over a pile of rocks that was bigger than he was. Lan almost wondered why he was going over instead of around, but then he got closer and spotted a sheer drop leading straight into the Shining Lake on the right. And on the left was that patch of unstable rocks, so evidently the only way forward was over.

"Guess Chaud had the same idea you did," Lan said quietly to MegaMan.

"Most likely it was ProtoMan," MegaMan replied, a slight snigger in his tone. "I heard from him that Chaud's pretty hopeless when it comes to real-world-navigation."

Lan sniggered too; he could just imagine Chaud getting lost and ProtoMan, as exasperated as MegaMan, trying to get him unlost.

" . . . Maybe I should go talk to him," Lan suddenly realised. MegaMan gave him a puzzled look, so Lan explained. "I mean, we're all kinda having fun, and if it hadn't been for Chaud, we wouldn't have even come out here. And we did kinda get mad at him for it, when he was just trying to be nice . . ."

"True," MegaMan said thoughtfully. "But do the rules allow you to talk to other players? I mean, Arin did say it was okay to hinder them, but aside from Navis, I think you're supposed to play this alone . . ."

"We won't work with him or anything," Lan said. "I just wanna apologise. I seem to be doing that a lot lately, huh?"

"Considering how you guys treated him while I was, ah, 'out of commission', I'd say you can't really apologise enough," MegaMan replied bluntly. Lan winced, and MegaMan's tone softened a little. "But you're making an effort, which shows you are genuinely sorry. So, okay, go ahead - just don't try and cheat. I don't think Arin'd be very happy."

"She's kinda weird, but I don't think I'd like to see her angry," Lan agreed.

He sped up a little and climbed over the same pile of rocks as Chaud, hoping to catch him before they got any further apart. Lan thought he'd lost him for a second, before he spotted Chaud walking along the side of the drop, keeping as far away from the patch of rocks as he could without falling off the edge.

Lan didn't want to startle him - if he fell over the edge, he might drown, or if he tripped into the patch of rocks, he might get buried - so he tried to make his foosteps as loud as possible so Chaud would be alerted to another person before he called out.

"Hey!" Lan shouted as soon as he was certain that Chaud knew someone was behind him.

Chaud paused and turned around, and waited as Lan caught up to him.

"I . . . don't think we're supposed to work together," Chaud said, looking a little uncomfortable.

"No, I know," Lan replied, nodding. "I just wanted to say- it's about earlier, with you getting us into this game-"

Chaud's expression turned sour. "Look, just forget it, okay?" he said sharply. "I'm sorry I assumed you'd all be fine with this. I get that you're angry at me, so just leave me alone for once."

Lan was taken aback. He'd been half-expecting the withdrawn version of Chaud that had skirted around the edges of their group for the past couple of weeks or so, not this angry version glaring at him. Apparently Chaud had had enough of being pushed around, and Lan honestly couldn't blame him, but still, he had to make sure Chaud understood.

"That's not what I-" Lan began.

"Shove it," Chaud snapped. "ProtoMan's right - I'm not a scratching post. You can't just get mad at me for the smallest of things and then expect me to be your friend when it suits you."

"Chaud, just listen, please," Lan tried.

Chaud would not listen. "What part of 'leave me alone' did you not understand?" he growled. He was upset, very upset, and Lan just wanted to apologise because this wasn't helping at all.

"Look, I'm so-"

"Go away!" Chaud snapped, and he whirled around and ran off away from the edge.

"Lan!" MegaMan exclaimed. "That's the unstable patch of rocks!"

Almost as if summoned by MegaMan's panicked words, an ominous rumble suddenly echoed through the cavern.

Lan jerked forward a couple of paces, only stopping because he wasn't sure where the patch started. Chaud was already too far out to make it back, and to make matters worse, he had stumbled to a halt and was frozen in place. Another rumble sounded, and this time Lan could see the rocks shuddering. The rumble seemed to shake Chaud out of his frozen terror and he spun around, and Lan had just enough time to see his panic-stricken expression before the rocks under his feet gave way.

" _CHAUD_!" Lan shouted.

 **OOOOOO**

This is officially the greatest cliffhanger I've ever written.

It's also an entirely-unplanned chapter. Originally I was just gonna Chaud hang around with Lan and everyone else for a couple of scenes in Lan's POV and then I was gonna switch it back to Chaud's POV to have him meet with Zoet in the evening, but then Arin happened and things went overboard from there.

I also kinda wanted an opportunity to explain the rules of Landslides properly, and this has actually given me the perfect chance while also allowing me to write a bit of angry-Chaud (who has finally had enough of putting up with Lan and Co.'s shit), and also that cliffhanger which is just awesome.

Well, not awesome for Chaud, since he's just been buried in rocks, but it's awesome for me to write because it's fun to torture my favourite characters.

And just think, if MegaMan was still my favourite, he'd probably be getting tortured even more than Chaud is right now. Some of the crap that's happened to Chaud so far has actually been planned even before my favourite character switched from MegaMan to Chaud, but the rest of it is basically entirely because of that switch.

Also, we've had two entire chapters of Lan's POV, and Zoet is nowhere to be seen. She gets mentioned a couple of times, of course, but since Lan doesn't know her personally - he doesn't even know that she's not a boy - there's not much of a role she can have unless it's as Acrobat.

But anyway, next chapter I'm hoping to sneak in a POV for MegaMan. I'll see if I can start out with it, but some of the scenes in that chapter I wanna do from Lan's POV (since, spoiler alert, there will be digging and that can't really be described from the screen and POV of a Navi).

So we'll be getting on with that next chapter.

Incidentally, I'd like to inform everyone - if I haven't already - that when I upload this, it will be entirely complete. I've found out that I very quickly lose interest if I upload something like a fic onto the internet with just one chapter completed, and peer pressure makes me write things I otherwise wouldn't have wanted to, so I decided to just write the fics out entirely and then upload the full, completed version all in one go. So if anyone has any pointers for this fic or any scenes, I'm afraid I won't be able to do much since it'll be finished when I dump it onto the internet, and there won't be much room for scene-changing since everything'll already be there.

And that's all I wanted to say. But if anyone does have any ideas as to how I can improve some scenes or if they've noticed any mistakes (grammer/spelling/otherwise), feel free to tell me. Just, please, try to be nice about it. Flamers are part of the reason why I couldn't finish a project when I used to upload as I wrote.

Read and review!


	19. Chapter 19 - Landslides, Part 2

And this chapter we get to see a bit of MegaMan's POV, which I haven't done at all for the entire fic.

I'm also stopping putting in the profiles. For the reasons that I already stated.

It'll make these ANs shorter, but it also means there's more room for the chapter itself, so I guess it works out fine. I'm still a bit wary of having the same issues I did with chapter five, which was . . . Oh, wow, it's chapter nineteen already? I've written a lot for this. I did not expect that.

But anyway, let's get on with this before I end up rambling about something I probably shouldn't, like spoilers.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

The rocks collapsed under Chaud's feet, and Lan, shouting his name in panic, started forward.

"Lan, no!" MegaMan cried, not wanting to see his brother injured - even if it meant leaving Chaud alone like this. "Don't go out there!"

"But Chaud-" Lan started.

"You won't be of any help to him if you get caught in that rockslide too," MegaMan said firmly, hoping that Lan would listen to him. "The best we can do is get Arin - she'll know what to do."

Lan was still staring at the still-crumbling rocks.

"Lan," MegaMan said. "Lan! _Lan_!"

Lan jumped, and glanced at MegaMan through the screen of the PET. Never before had MegaMan wished so badly that he could be in the same world as Lan, if only because words were all he could give him. Actual physical contact was impossible, as far as he knew.

"I'm going to go and contact Arin, see if I can connect to her PET," MegaMan explained. He tried to give Lan as stern a look as he could manage. "Stay right here. Don't move. Okay?"

" . . . Okay," Lan said almost robotically.

MegaMan was worried, but he had to leave. It'd be easier to explain things if he went over to Arin's PET himself rather than sending an email, but he was afraid that Lan, in his absence, would take the opportunity to try and rescue Chaud from underneath the rocks without any help. He knew Lan was probably feeling like this was his fault, and that usually led to some very disastrous things happening.

All he could do was hope.

He turned his wheelchair around - the 'wheels' on it weren't really wheels, because it was a hoverchair, so it was easy to move (thank goodness for digital technology and his dad's genius) - and brought up the starting email from Arin.

Using that, it was relatively easy to connect to her PET, and he went straight through the connection and ended up in a lighter green version of the PET background that he was used to. For a moment all he did was stare in silence; Savaron PETs were obviously very different to Electopian PETs. The setup was entirely different, it all seemed kind of backwards from his perspective.

And then he noticed a giant black jackal wandering over to him. The jackal seemed to be wearing some sort of golden skirt and had strange golden markings around its eyes, and a golden collar around its neck. It was also very tall, and MegaMan had a feeling that, even if he hadn't been sitting down, he still would've felt very small next to it.

"Hello," the jackal said, with a very deep voice that reminded MegaMan a little bit of Colonel's. "It's MegaMan, isn't it? Lan Hikari's Navi?"

"That's right," MegaMan said. "Um-"

"I'm Jackal, Arin's Navi," the jackal went on. Then he tilted his head and frowned. "That's . . . odd. The cavern's not very big, but none of you kids should have gotten here this fast. Did your operator swim across the lake?"

"No, he didn't," MegaMan said, recovering enough to remember that he was here for a reason. "There's been some trouble along the way!"

Instantly, Jackal turned serious. "What kind of trouble?" he demanded sharply.

"Chaud fell into a rockslide in that unstable patch of rocks that Arin warned us about," MegaMan explained quickly. "He's buried under the rocks and I'm scared that Lan'll try and go in to save him!"

"That kid has no luck whatsoever, I swear," Jackal muttered.

MegaMan thought he was talking about Lan for half a second before he realised that Jackal didn't actually know Lan - as far as he was aware, the two had never spoken, but Lan did know _of_ Jackal and his power as a Navi. So that meant Jackal was talking about Chaud.

Just . . . add that to pile of mysteries, he guessed. Chaud seemed to be buried in more than rocks these days, although MegaMan did know a bit more than Lan about all of this.

While he was thinking about that, Jackal had turned to a screen showing Arin pacing around energetically, arguing with herself - something about a PET with legs and a talking fridge.

"Arin!" Jackal called. "Trouble with the little one!"

She immediately stopped pacing and rushed over to the PET with such speed that MegaMan was half-surprised she didn't trip.

"What happened?" Arin demanded.

Jackal glanced at MegaMan, who quickly explained the situation. When he was done, Arin scowled briefly - but it was so brief that he almost missed it, and had he not been looking right at her, he actually would have. How well did Arin know Chaud in order to get angry on his behalf?

"Damn these kids, nothing but drama," Arin muttered. She picked up her PET and straightened up. "MegaMan, lead us to where your operator and Chaud are. Jackal, send an email to everyone else, let them know what's going on and tell them to stay put."

"You're not going to ask them to help save Chaud?" MegaMan gaped as she ran off in the direction he'd told her.

"The more people we have running around on those rocks, the more chance there is of a full-scale landslide," Arin explained. "If it's just two people, it'll be fine. Probably. Now, where exactly along the cliff are they?"

The 'probably' didn't exactly fill MegaMan with confidence, but he gave Arin directions as best as he could. Once he was done, Arin told him he could go back to Lan, because she was also worried that he'd do something stupid like try to save Chaud.

Getting back to his own PET was easier than finding a connection to Arin's foreign PET, and he was relieved when he got back into familiar territory. He hovered over the digital ground and brought up the screen of Lan's PET.

"Lan?" MegaMan called. From what he could see, Lan was on the ground in the real world. He didn't appear to be kneeling, or moving, however. "Where are you right now?"

"I'm not in the patch," Lan mumbled. He was still staring out at where Chaud had fallen into the rocks. "I'm just sitting down. I . . . I don't like being so helpless."

MegaMan glanced past Lan at the rocks. "It still looks pretty unstable," he said. "But Arin's on her way, she'll know what to do. We'll get him out, Lan."

"Alive?"

That was something MegaMan couldn't answer honestly.

 **oooo**

By the time Arin found them, several minutes had passed and the rumbling from the patch of rocks that had collapsed was little more than a faint growl.

"Where exactly did he fall?" Arin asked, looking at Lan.

His insides twisting in guilt, Lan stood and pointed. The patch of rocks where Chaud had fallen was more disturbed than the rest of the rocks, and there was no sign of movement from it.

"He's not too far in," Arin said, nodding to herself. "But it'll be difficult to get him out. We'll have to wait until the rocks are properly settled before we can go anywhere near them."

Lan looked at her, dismayed. "B-but what if he needs help now?" he stammered. "We can't just sit around here and wait!"

"There's nothing we can do right now," Arin said firmly. "I want to rescue the little one as much you do, but if we go in now, we risk getting buried ourselves. We'll give it a few minutes and then make our way over the rocks very, very carefully."

"But-"

"And if we go out now, the rocks shifting under our feet may end up hurting Chaud," Arin went on.

Lan stopped complaining immediately. Forget getting himself buried under the rocks, he wasn't about to hurt Chaud more than he probably already was.

It was several agonising minutes later before Arin deemed the rocks stable enough for them to walk on - or as stable as this particular patch could get - and they made their way over the rocks slowly and cautiously, wary of setting off another rockslide. Arin got to the pile first, since she was used to climbing over rocks (being a citizen of Nowhere City and all), and crouched to get a closer look at the pile while Lan came up beside her.

"He shouldn't be too deep," she told Lan. "Even so, we can't assume that he's not been injured. We'll have to shift these rocks very carefully - get the ones on top first so we don't disturb the pile and collapse the entire thing even more. Got it?"

"Got it," Lan agreed.

So they began to remove the rocks from the top. MegaMan and Jackal helped as much as they could, but considering they were both in the cyberworld, the best they could do was direct their operators to which rocks would be better to move first, and which ones they should leave alone until they said so.

Arin followed her Navi's instructions to the letter. Lan began to wonder how many times she'd had to dig some poor kid out of a rockslide after playing this game. It'd have to be a lot for her and Jackal to be able to work so confidently, when Lan and MegaMan were almost too worried to move the rocks.

It took so long to move the rocks that Lan was wondering how many hours they'd been here already, but the reality was that it had only been a few minutes. It just seemed like hours because of his guilt, and the fact that, as they were being careful with the rocks, Chaud might be dying under their feet.

The thought spurred Lan on. He didn't care if Chaud hated him for the rest of his life (he did sort of deserve it, MegaMan was right), all he cared about was getting him out of the rocks alive.

"I just saw something," Arin said suddenly, after several more minutes of shifting the rocks.

Lan almost dropped the rock he was shifting, but kept a hold of it - it wouldn't do much good to drop something when even the slightest movement could set everything off again.

He looked at Arin hopefully.

"A flash of white," Arin explained, glancing at him with a determined smile. "Little bit too dark to tell properly, but I think we're getting there." She huffed out a breath and glanced over her shoulder, and then frowned. "Jackal, didn't you tell those kiddies not to move?"

"Of course I did," her Navi said, sounding surprised. "Why?"

"Because they're standing right there," Arin replied, nodding in the direction she was looking.

Lan also looked over his shoulder, and was surprised to see his friends clustered together at the edge of the patch of rocks, where Lan himself had been sitting while he was waiting for Arin to show up. They didn't look like they were coming onto the patch of rocks any time soon, but they were clearly worried.

"They're just worried about Chaud," Lan realised. He looked back at Arin.

"In emergencies like these," Arin muttered, looking disconcerted, "it's better to listen to the one person who actually knows what she's doing. I can't imagine you kiddies have had much experience with rockslides up in Electopia."

They hadn't, not really, but that didn't matter.

Lan and Arin got back to work quickly, and pretty soon he was able to spot the flash of white that Arin had seen. Chaud's unusual hair was at least helpful in spotting him during an emergency, even if he hated the nicknames it got him.

It was a couple of minutes before they'd cleared away enough rocks for Lan to be able to reach into the hole they'd managed to create. He couldn't see any obvious injuries, but even though his eyes were half-open, Chaud didn't appear to be aware of his surroundings.

"I can see him, but I don't think he's awake," Lan told Arin.

"Probably got knocked out," Arin said. She blinked at Lan. "Can you reach him? Pull him out?"

Lan tried, but he could only get one arm into the rocks. If he tried to reach in with both, he was afraid he'd fall in as well. Not only that, he wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to risk pulling Chaud out and hurting him more.

He pulled back and shook his head at Arin.

"Right then," Arin decided, "we'll try and widen the hole a bit more. Next time you try, I'll keep a hold of you."

He nodded and they went back to work.

Once they had widened the hole enough, Lan reached forward to try again. Arin, true to her word, wrapped her arms around his waist and clung on, keeping him steady enough take hold of Chaud as best he could.

"Be gentle, we don't know how badly he's hurt," Arin reminded him.

Lan didn't really need reminding, but he was glad for the brief distraction from his terror. He was as careful as he could ever be, pulling Chaud forward inch by gentle inch, until eventually he'd gotten Chaud far enough out that Arin could let go of him and help guide Chaud's body out of the rocks.

There was a brief terrifying moment during which the rocks rumbled ominously again, and they both froze in place until, thankfully, the rumble died down and they could continue getting Chaud out.

Finally they managed to get him out of the rocks, and Arin picked him up into her arms and led the way slowly over the patch of rocks again. Once they were off, she set Chaud down on the ground and bent over him, uncharacteristically serious as she checked him over.

" . . . Looks like he just got a hit to the head," she reported a minute later. "We just have to wait for him to wake up, and he should be fine - just to be safe, though, I'll take him to a hospital."

Lan and his friends, who had relaxed as soon as Arin said he should be fine, immediately tensed again as soon as the word 'hospital' was mentioned. Arin realised that she'd said the magic word - and not in a good way - and she looked up at them all, clustered around her and Chaud.

"He'll be fine, the hospital is just in case," she said gently. Then she glanced at Lan, and asked the very question that he'd been dreading. "Why did he run out onto the patch, anyway? He knew it wasn't safe. MegaMan didn't explain it very well, he was too busy panicking."

"I . . ." Lan swallowed, and decided to face the music. "It was my fault."

Maylu, Dex, Yai and Tory all stared at him, open-mouthed in shock. Lan cringed away from their stares and looked at Arin, whose expression was like stone and difficult to read.

"What exactly do you mean?" she asked, very calmly.

"I-I saw him walking along this trail," Lan explained, suddenly finding his feet very interesting. "And I wanted to, uh, apologise for . . . being mad at him. For getting us into playing this game. Because we were enjoying it, sorta, and if it hadn't been for him-"

"Lan," MegaMan said gently.

"S-sorry," Lan sighed. "I just wanted to apologise, but when I brought it up, I guess he thought I was gonna start yelling at him for it or something. He . . . he got mad at me, he told me to leave him alone, and when I tried to explain, he just . . . he got really, really mad and then he ran out onto the patch. I-I don't think he even knew where he was going, he probably just wanted to get away from me, but . . . A-and he . . . he almost d-died because I . . ."

He clenched his fists and tried to fight back the tears.

"What is it with you kids and misunderstandings getting way too out of hand?" Arin wondered, frowning at him. "First it was the whole 'not talking to each other for weeks on end' thing, and now this. Nothing but drama, I swear."

Before anyone could form a response to that - and it was entirely true, Lan realised - there was a quiet moan from Chaud, and he blinked, eyes coming back into focus.

They all leaned in as he looked around slowly, confused.

"What happened?" he asked. The words were a little slurred, but still easily understandable.

"That patch of rocks happened," Arin informed him. She helped him sit up and patted him on the head. "Poor little one, you nearly got buried. You seem to have a lot of accidents. Do you get into this much trouble in Electopia?"

"No," Chaud replied, moving his hand over his head to check for injuries. "It just seems to be a lot worse here than anywhere else."

"Poor baby," Arin said, starting to grin. "A'right, I'm gonna have to take you to the hospital to get checked over."

"What about Landslides?" Chaud wondered.

"Why're you worried about that?" Lan asked. "You nearly died in a rockslide!"

Chaud looked at him blankly for a moment. And then he tensed up, starting to glare again.

"I wanted to say sorry," Lan blurted out before he could angry again. "About earlier - if it hadn't been for you agreeing to play this game, we would never have come out here, and Landslides is actually a pretty fun game. If, you know, you ignore the fact that you just got buried in rocks."

"Oh," Chaud said, just as blankly as before. "You . . . you just wanted to . . ." Now he looked at his knees awkwardly. "Um . . . I'm sorry I overreacted."

"Don't worry about it," Lan said, as gently as possible. "I get why you got angry, I don't blame you - I'd get angry too. Just, uh, don't go running into anymore rockslides, okay?"

Chaud looked up and gave him a small smile. "I'll try not to," he agreed quietly.

"And now that that drama is hopefully out of the way," Arin said, standing up. Everyone turned their attention toward her. "Chaud, do you think you can walk? If not, don't lie about it - these kind of injuries can be very serious and you might make it worse if you try to walk when you can't."

For a moment, all Chaud did was stare at her. It seemed he was on the verge of telling her that he was perfectly fine and that he could walk, but then he sighed.

"I feel a little dizzy," he admitted. "I don't think I can walk, not for long anyway."

"Good thing you're small enough to carry," Arin acknowledged. She bent down and gathered Chaud into her arms, and he was too stunned at the sudden move to protest being picked up like a baby. "C'mon, kiddies, time to go! Just follow me to the Science Station and get some tram tickets to the Haven District from there. Once I get the little one here sorted, I'll contact Dr. Hikari and tell him what happened."

 **oooo**

Dad was torn between being furious and being relieved. MegaMan watched quietly as he lectured Lan on the dangers of upsetting anyone when there was literally danger on both sides, and Lan, who was obviously still feeling as though this entire thing was his fault, took the lecture silently. Mom wasn't back yet from the market in the Jungle District (which Maylu and Tory had discovered a few days ago), but he had no doubts that Lan would be getting a lecture from her as well.

Once he was done lecturing, Dad sighed and put a gentle hand on Lan's shoulder.

"I'm just glad you didn't fall in yourself - and I'm proud that you tried to fix what happened and that you helped save Chaud," Dad said.

"R-really?" Lan asked, looking up.

"Really," Dad agreed.

Almost the same thing happened with Mom, except, halfway through her lecture, she burst into tears and sobbed that it could have been him under those rocks.

They waited around for a few hours, before Arin finally showed up with Chaud trailing behind her. She cheerfully left him in their care, saying that he had another day off - whatever that meant - so he'd better work extra hard next time. After she left, Chaud was taken straight to his hotel room, where Mom more or less forced him to stay in bed.

Lan stayed with him the entire night, and while they quietly tried to regain the friendship they had before all of this had happened, MegaMan went into Chaud's PET to find ProtoMan. He'd been oddly silent during this entire incident, and he was worried.

MegaMan found his red-clad friend sitting on top of a small datablock out of the way near the edge of the PET. Here, he was out of sight of both the PET screen and any Navis or programs that weren't actively searching for him. He was staring at his hands, and his mouth was a thin line, but beyond that MegaMan couldn't detect anything. That visor sometimes made it very difficult to tell what ProtoMan was thinking - or feeling.

"ProtoMan?" MegaMan called.

ProtoMan didn't even twitch.

" . . . This isn't your fault, you know," MegaMan said. "You couldn't have stopped Chaud running out onto that patch of rocks anymore than I could've stopped Lan from going after him."

"You did," ProtoMan said quietly.

"Huh?"

ProtoMan looked up. The blank visor did nothing to hide his despair. "You did stop Lan from going after Chaud," he told MegaMan. "But I couldn't stop Chaud from running out first."

"I doubt anyone could've stopped him, he was too upset to think clearly," MegaMan told him. "I know what that's like. At least, I sort of know what that's like. But, still, it was just an accident - and Chaud wasn't badly hurt. He's gonna be fine by tomorrow, that's what Arin told us the doctors said, right?"

"Right," ProtoMan echoed. He went back to staring at his hands.

MegaMan could guess what he was thinking about - that strange system, the VR system, that allowed Navis to come into the real world (if only inside of that massive room with the large dome on the ceiling). If that system was everywhere, maybe ProtoMan could have come out of the PET and stopped Chaud. MegaMan didn't know much about the people that Chaud and ProtoMan were currently working with, but he did know that the VR system was very powerful and, if misused, could potentially spell disaster for everyone in Nowhere City and perhaps the entire world. And that very same system could have also saved Chaud from almost dying under those rocks.

"It's best not to dwell on this," MegaMan said after a few moments of silence. "There's a lot of people blaming themselves for things that aren't actually their fault these days, but like Mom says, if you're gonna blame yourself, then you gotta do all you can to make up for it. You care about Chaud a lot, don't you?"

"Of course I do!" ProtoMan exclaimed, looking up sharply. "He's my best friend, and I'd do anything to protect him!"

"He wouldn't want you to blame yourself like this, then," MegaMan said. "If you talk to him about this, he'll probably say the same things I am. But, still, don't dwell on it. It's over now, and hopefully there won't be any arguments as bad as these ones."

"Hopefully," ProtoMan agreed.

 **OOOOOO**

And here we are with another shorter chapter - I think all of the shorter chapters actually belong almost exclusively to Lan's POV, which we've had almost three entire chapters of.

But as promised, I've given you guys some of MegaMan's POV as well. The start bit and the end bit (which kind of got written because I realised that I'd made ProtoMan weirdly absent from the other scenes, during which he probably should have been attempting to make good on his promise to beat Lan senseless, so that was kind of an explanation for his silence). The middle bit belongs to Lan because of reasons I already explained.

And also, just to inform everyone, I know absolutely nothing about head injuries - except that if you're unconscious for more than a minute you're probably in big trouble - so I've taken some artistic liscense here. It is possible to be unconscious with your eyes open, I actually looked that up, but since Chaud was under those rocks for a while and only got away with a bit of dizziness, that's kind of taking things a bit weirdly.

But hey, we're talking about a world where a dead baby got turned into a digital AI warrior and his twin brother has done beyond-impossible things on a regular basis, so artistic liscense is a given.

Also have some Arin-carrying-Chaud-like-a-baby. I dunno why, I just loved the picture I imagined of that happening.

Read and review!


	20. Chapter 20 - Elemental Tornadoes

I'm not sure if it's come up yet - whether in-story or in the ANs themselves - but the Underground NetBattlers actually employ independent NetNavis along with their human operatives and their own Navis. It's not too much of a plot point, I just wanted to talk about it because it was supposed to come up earlier in the story, but then everything else happened and I just couldn't figure out where to fit that piece of information.

Also, you know the VR system? That's managed entirely by a powerful independent NetNavi called Virtue. I did consider making Virtue a female Navi, but I decided not to because I've mentioned the whole 'genderless Navis' thing before (or one of my characters has), so Virtue is a genderless Navi. Unlike Virus, who prefers to be referred to as 'it', Virtue instead goes by 'they'. They're basically a steampunk-style robot Navi, and are also the owner of the voice that the training room has when a character is asking for a level or field or whatever.

That bit of info there isn't actually much of a spoiler - though I do plan on having Virtue show up during the climax - but since Virtue is more or less in the same boat as the other independent Navis who I forgot to give a mention to, I decided it'd be best to talk about them here and now in case I don't manage to fit in a mention or explanation for them in the story.

Though, speaking of the actual story, since we've had three chapters of Lan/MegaMan POVs and most of the story is from Chaud's POV, we'll be having this one from ProtoMan's POV. I mentioned that I haven't said anything about independent Navis in-story, but I will be showing you guys one of them during this chapter, since ProtoMan's going off on a mission of his own.

And since Flight hasn't had as much story-time as Virus (well, I don't think I've written her as much as I've written Virus), she'll also be tagging along. Hopefully I can show off her abilities better than that one chill-chapter with ProtoMan seeing the Underground Navis' basic attacks and stuff.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"So," Flight said cheerfully, "are you ready for your first solo assignment?"

"But it's not solo, is it?" ProtoMan pointed out, a little puzzled. "Because there'll be three Navis working on it."

"They're just called solo assignments for Navis with operators," Flight explained, leading him through the Underground NetBattlers' HQ network. "Since, for all intents and purposes, we're basically doing this solo - without our NetOps, in other words."

"What're they called for independent Navis?" ProtoMan wondered curiously.

"I think they've got their own word for it, but I've never heard it."

Three days had passed since that disastrous attempt at playing Landslides in the Shining Lake's cavern, and just this morning ProtoMan had recieved an email informing him that he'd been assigned a solo mission, to be carried out in the network of the Military District's bank. The mission details were your typical virus attack, although this attack was slightly unusual because the network was apparently under attack by elemental tornadoes.

When he'd read the email, he'd also been told that he would be working with Flight - who would be there to assume the role that Zoet had been fulfilling for Chaud - and another Navi, who was an independent Navi by the name of Korock.

Since he'd never actually met any Navi called Korock, Flight had offered to introduce him before their solo mission actually began.

"That's him, right there," Flight said, pointing out a small humanoid Navi with yellow armour.

Korock looked a little bit like MegaMan, but only in armour and size. Other than that, he was completely different - his helmet was relatively plain and even though he had shoulder-armour, they just seemed more like singular plates rather than ridges. Also unlike MegaMan, he had no hair, and there wasn't a pack attached to his back, nor did he have a NaviMark on his chest (though he had two in the usual place - on the sides of his helmet where ears would go if he were human).

The yellow Navi was waiting for them near one of the many network connections (these connections typically resembled pathways or tunnels leading off into other networks, unless they were in a homepage, in which case they would be represented by banners or warp panels). This connection was a tunnel, and above the tunnel was a digital sign reading 'Military District' in Savaron.

As Flight and ProtoMan approached, he spotted various Navis coming in and out of the Military District connection.

"We're not the only ones with missions in that district's network," Flight explained, when she spotted him looking. "We're the only ones going to the bank, though. Everyone else has their own missions."

They halted in front of Korock, who nodded a curt greeting.

"He's kind of a serious type," Flight explained in a loud whisper.

"Just because I don't bounce around the walls like some do," Korock said, "does not mean I'm a 'serious type'."

"But you are," Flight insisted.

Korock just sighed and turned to ProtoMan. He held out his hand to shake. "Hello there. You must be the Electopian Navi, ProtoMan, right?" he asked. "My name is Korock. I hope you're ready for your first solo assignment, because I'm not going to babysit you through it."

"Uh," ProtoMan said.

"He's like Zoet, sorta," Flight put in. "Also he's kidding; if you need any help, he'll be more than happy to assist you! Right, Korock?"

"Wrong," Korock replied.

ProtoMan just looked between them as they argued, wondering whether or not he should point out that they were wasting time for their assignment.

 **oooo**

They eventually stopped and Korock led the way through the connection and into the Military District's bank network. It was a very uniform place, much like the rest of the district in the real world, something which humans would describe as 'futuristic science-fiction'. Or cyberpunk. Whichever.

A bank Navi was waiting for them at the start of the network.

"Oh, thank goodness," the bank Navi sighed. "I was afraid you'd never show. Er . . . do you need those weird cloaks, though?"

The three Underground Navis had activated their Shade programs, cloaking themselves in the digital shadow-cloaks, before they'd arrived. Flight's was a bright gold shadow-cloak that covered everything, even her wings, in shadows, while Korock's was a murky yellow cloak similar in shape to ProtoMan's.

"Yes," Korock said shortly. "The description mentioned elemental tornadoes wreaking havoc on the network. Where exactly are these tornadoes?"

"In the third and final Area, where quite a lot of important data is stored," the bank Navi informed them. He turned and walked away, clearly meaning for the three Navis to follow him.

"Has much of the data has been destroyed?" ProtoMan asked. From the sound of it, these tornadoes were causing a lot of trouble - and in a bank, the destruction could mean that outside sources could easily break in and steal anything from money to customer details, or the details could be deleted entirely.

"It's mostly just the ground and stray bits of datablocks," the bank Navi replied. "We've hired guard Navis and installed programs to protect the data we need to protect, but they're weakening slowly and we're getting desperate. No one can get close enough to the tornadoes to delete them, the wind they produce is too powerful and they also throw out the occasional elemental attack."

That was odd. ProtoMan had never heard of any type of virus or even attack that could do anything like this. Maybe there was a Navi throwing tornadoes around, trying to use them to steal precious data, or perhaps there was a NetOp behind all of this, in which case they would probably need to contact HQ in order to get a human operator over to the bank as fast as possible.

"The manager decided to send off an email to request help from some Shades," the bank Navi went on. He paused at the entrance to another part of the bank network and showed his digital ID to the guard Navi in place, who waved all four of them through. "I don't think anyone was expecting just Navis to show up, though."

"The Shades employ many skilled operatives," Korock explained, "some of whom happen to be Navis. This is none of your concern. What is your concern is getting us to the area afflicted with these tornadoes so we can delete them."

The bank Navi glanced over his shoulder, slightly bewildered. "If you say so," he said.

ProtoMan sped up so he matched his pace with Korock. "Was that necessary?" he asked in an undertone. "He's trying to be as helpful as possible and you're being extremely rude."

"Is it my fault that people don't think Navis can do a human's job?" Korock snapped.

A little put out, ProtoMan dropped back and walked with Flight, whose expression he couldn't see due to the golden shadow-cloak. Her tone was fairly sympathetic, though.

"Some independent Navis are a little touchy about this kinda thing, don't take it personally," she told him. "Most people at HQ treat them as if they're human operatives, which is partly why they enjoy being a part of our organisation, but half the time the humans who send requests for assistance from Shades don't exactly take them seriously. Some civilian Navis don't either."

Now that he knew that, ProtoMan could certainly see why Korock was being short with the bank Navi. However, that still didn't really give him the right to be so rude.

This actually reminded him of how Electopia - and most of the other countries on the planet - treated independent Navis. Most of them just wandered the net, occasionally causing trouble, and made general nuisances of themselves. But now that he'd seen that these kind of Navis could be employed, ProtoMan had to wonder how much of the trouble those Navis caused was the result of prejudice against NetNavis with no NetOps. Perhaps he and Chaud, when they got back to Electopia, should suggest employing independent Navis as part of the Officials.

If nothing else, being part of the Underground NetBattlers - however temporarily - was giving them some good ideas that may help back home. They really were learning from these people, eccentric as they were.

The bank Navi led them to the end of the second part of the network, but then paused at a tunnel connection leading off into a completely different direction. He gestured toward it.

"That's a new connection we set up so we can get through the tornadoes without having to actually go near them," he explained. "It goes all the way to the back of the Area, since the tornadoes have sort of taken over most of the middle sections. But you guys need the normal entrance, so I'll just get you through and leave you to it."

He showed his ID to the guard Navi positioned at the entrance to the third Area of the bank's network, and then turned to the three Navis and bowed them through. Just before they vanished, he gave them a bit of advice.

"The white tornadoes seem to be able to switch elements," he warned them. "I think they may be the most powerful form of the elemental tornadoes - they're certainly the quickest."

"Thank you for the information," Flight said, before Korock could say anything too harsh. "We'll get rid of them for you, don't worry. On our honour as Navi Shades, we promise."

"We promise," ProtoMan and Korock echoed.

The bank Navi nodded, and then the second bank Area vanished as the three Navis found themselves at the start of the third and final Area.

And almost immediately, they saw the problem.

There were tornadoes everywhere - of varying sizes, intensities, and colours - and they were wrecking everything in sight. Bits of shredded data were left behind in the wake of every tornado, while more still were sucked into the tornadoes and then spat out as pixelated and glitchy messes. And there were five types of tornadoes rolling around, too. Red, yellow, blue, green and white tornadoes, all tearing up the ground and data.

"Well, at least they're colour-coded," Flight said, watching as a green tornado tore up the ground around it, causing something like a miniture earthquake around it.

"Red seems to be Heat-element," Korock added, narrowing his eyes and scanning each of the tornadoes. "Blue is Aqua-element. Green is most likely Wood-element. Yellow is obviously Elec-element. And the white ones are the ones that can switch."

"Are these viruses, or did a Navi make them?" ProtoMan asked.

"I can't detect any AIs similar to Navis in the Area," Korock replied. "All the same, keep an eye out. These may just be viruses but you'd be an idiot to assume we're safe."

ProtoMan almost said something along the lines of 'stop treating me like a newly-programmed Navi' but he stopped himself. This was his first solo mission as a temporary Underground NetBattler, so of course he should expect to be treated like this. It still didn't make him feel any better about it.

But he _did_ feel a bit better when Flight patted his shoulder in a comforting gesture.

The three Navis decided to scout the situation first - and since Flight was the only one who could fly and was fast enough, she went off and zoomed around way above the tornadoes, her shadow-cloak streaming behind her. Once she came back, they discussed what their next move should be.

"Far as I can tell," she reported, "there's nothing but tornadoes out there. Right at the back of the network there's a few Navis and programs running around, but I'm pretty those are the guards that the bank Navi told us about."

"How many tornadoes did you see?" Korock asked her.

"There's about five each of the coloured ones, and three of the white ones," Flight said.

"So we're looking at twenty-three tornadoes altogether," ProtoMan put in. "Do we just attack them?"

"Hm . . ." Korock considered their options for a while, and then turned to ProtoMan, his eyes narrowed thoughtfully. "I heard from a couple of other Navis that you have a move called . . . Sword Cyclone?"

"Blade Cyclone," ProtoMan corrected him.

"That, yes. Is it an actual cyclone, or do you just spin very fast?"

"I do spin very quickly, but the speed and power helps me to generate an actual cyclone," ProtoMan explained. "That cyclone also gets powered up by whatever swords I happen to be using at the time."

"Well, you only basic attacks right now, so do you have any swords?"

"I have Proto Sword."

Korock raised an eyebrow. "Can you make two of them?" he demanded.

In reply, ProtoMan activated Proto Sword on his right arm - and then on his left. Korock looked at the two red swords, and then nodded.

"Good," he said. "We'll try countering with Blade Cyclone first, maybe you can cancel out the elemental tornadoes with it. There's an Elec one over there, try it out."

He gestured to his left - ProtoMan's right - and indeed there was a yellow tornado spinning nearby. The electricity it produced seemed to make everything within three feet dull and grey, as if it had deleted the data, before shredding it with the actual physical tornado.

ProtoMan nodded and Korock and Flight stepped away, giving him room. He waited until the Elec tornado was ten feet away, and then he began to pirouette as quickly as he could.

He only saw brief flashes of the network as the Blade Cyclone formed around him. Wind was rushing in his ears and suddenly all he could see was swirling red, yet despite all this he knew exactly where he was supposed to go. Chaud had programmed an excellent sense of direction - not to mention memory - into him specifically for this attack, so he wouldn't have to just spin around blindly whenever he used it.

He moved towards where he remembered the Elec tornado was, and encountered wind resistance moving in the opposite direction to his own almost immediately. He was momentarily surprised, but then reminded himself that these tornadoes weren't just stationary, and this one, upon sensing some sort of threat to its existence, was attempting to delete him.

Now he could feel sparks of electricity trying to delete his data like the shredded data from before. But he wasn't just normal pieces of data, he was a Navi, so the electricity only served to make his hit points decline one-by-one instead.

ProtoMan gritted his teeth and poured a little more energy into Blade Cyclone. He went faster, faster than the speed of the Elec tornado, and the sparks receded until he was the one attacking the tornado rather than the other way around. Eventually his own power overtook that of the tornado's, and his Blade Cyclone absorbed and deleted it.

He came out of Blade Cyclone slowly - if he ended it too quickly he'd end up flinging himself clean out of the Area, or at least against the edge of it - and dropped to the ground just as Korock and Flight came over to him.

"Guess that answers that," Korock said, nodding his approval. "Blade Cyclone is effective against them."

"What'd it feel like, getting hit by it?" Flight asked curiously, pulling ProtoMan to his feet.

"The Elec tornadoes seem to delete and then shred data," he replied. "But since I'm a NetNavi, not just normal data, it couldn't do the same to me. It just shaved off a few of my hit points."

"Well, I hope you have a lot of hit points," Korock said, "because you may end up having to do that again."

ProtoMan looked at him, and then glanced at Flight for an explanation.

"Mummify is hardly going to do much against these things, is it?" she said, holding up her bandaged arms with a shrug. "And Korock's Rock Buster is one of the most basic attacks there is."

"Rock Buster?" ProtoMan repeated. That name reminded him a little bit of MegaMan's Mega Buster.

"Pretty much exactly what it says on the tin," Korock told him. He looked around and spotted a Heat tornado spitting fire, burning bits of data all over the place. "Here, I'll show you what it can do - and test out whether or not it actually works on these things at the same time."

He lifted his left arm and it transformed into something similar to a standard Buster. Korock may have looked just a little bit like MegaMan, but his Buster was so similar to MegaMan's that there didn't seem to be any difference - except for the obvious fact that Korock's Buster was yellow instead of blue.

Korock charged his Buster up briefly, and then took aim at the Heat tornado.

"Rock Buster!" he declared, and then fired.

What came out of his Buster was completely different to the standard shots that MegaMan used.

It was a literal rock. It was fired out of Korock's Buster at high speed, and went straight into the Heat tornado with little more than a ripple of fire and wind. Korock grunted and then fired a couple more rocks, both of which did the exact same thing. He shrugged and banished his Rock Buster.

"And there you have it," he said, turning back to ProtoMan. "Normally I can do quite a bit of damage with those rocks - especially if I fully charge them - but evidently they do nothing against those tornadoes. In fact I'm fairly certain my rocks were just deleted the moment they made contact with the damn things."

" . . . Right," ProtoMan said.

It looked like he was in for a very long day.

 **oooo**

It took ProtoMan about two hours in total to delete all of the remaining elemental tornadoes, and by the end of it, he could hardly stand up. Flight had to support him after he managed to get rid of the last white tornado, which, as the bank Navi had warned them, did give him a lot of trouble.

He'd figured out how to counter each of the different elements that the tornadoes produced, but having to switch tactics while in the middle of Blade Cyclone was very difficult and he often got flung out of it. In fact, that happened so often that his hit points were getting into single digits by the time he was finally finished.

The Elec tornadoes were by far the easiest to delete. All he had to do was match their speed and then go faster, cancelling it out. The Aqua tornadoes were more or less the same, but he didn't need to be touching them in order to delete them - the only problem was that the Aqua tornadoes also blasted out streams of very painful water that had a much further reach than the electricity that the Elec tornadoes generated.

Next were the Heat tornadoes, which were mainly dangerous because the heat and flames those ones created made ProtoMan tire out faster, so he had to delete the Heat tornadoes quickly. The hardest of the four coloured tornadoes were the Wood tornadoes, which constantly threw him off-balance and out of Blade Cyclone via a miniature earthquake-effect, and once he'd lost his balance, it was very difficult to get it back with the Wood tornado tearing the ground up around him.

And the white tornadoes - which Korock had dubbed as Switch tornadoes - could do all four of those at will.

The bank Navi who had greeted them came over once again, a grateful smile on his face. He clearly had a better opinion of independent Navis now that he'd seen what they could do, even if only one of three Navis in front of him was a true independent Navi. He didn't know that, though.

"Thank you so much, now we can get our work done without having to worry about getting hit by those tornadoes!" he said graciously. Then he paused, spotting something near his feet. "Did one of you drop some data?"

"Uh, no," Flight replied, surprised. She exchanged a glance with Korock, who leaned down and picked up the data curiously. "What is it, Murky?"

Korock's Shade Navi name must have been Murky Shade, ProtoMan realised. He'd forgotten to ask what it was before the mission had started.

"Virus data," Korock answered, turning the data over to peer at it. "And if used correctly, it could become battle chip data . . ."

"Do you need any form of payment?" the bank Navi interrupted them. "I heard that Shades don't specifically ask for rewards when they complete their jobs, but the Military District bank wishes to offer you all something in return for helping us."

"This data will be enough payment," Korock said for all three of them. "We'd better get going now. Contact the Shades if you or any of your coworkers need any assistance ever again."

The bank Navi bowed briefly in acknowledgment, and then Korock, Flight and ProtoMan jacked themselves out of the bank's network.

 **oooo**

Korock led them both to the medical network at HQ, and called over a nurse Navi to repair the damage done to all of them.

It had been ProtoMan who had taken the worst damage, since he was the only one who could fully delete the elemental tornadoes, but Flight and Korock had hardly been idle the entire time. They'd helped as much as they were able to, luring specific tornadoes into places where ProtoMan could get rid of them easily, and had sustained some damage of their own while acting as bait.

While they were being repaired, Korock handed the tornado virus data over to ProtoMan.

"You did most of the legwork, you may as well have it," the idependent Navi said. "I hear your operator is a genius - maybe he can figure out how to make that data into battle chips for you."

"Thank you," ProtoMan replied, surprised. Flight, seated on his other side while she waited for a tear in one of her wings to be sealed up, was also surprised, but neither voiced this as they suspected this was probably Korock's way of apologising for being a prick earlier.

It was a few minutes before any of them spoke again.

"You know," Flight said, "Arin made this machine which makes creating battle chips really easy. It's at our house, if you think Chaud might like to try it out. You can use that virus data or you can even have a go at making an entirely new battle chip."

"Arin made something like that?" ProtoMan was both impressed and not at all surprised at this news. Arin, who could make a walking PET for no reason other than 'it sounded cool at the time', was an engineering genius despite her immaturity. "Well, since you offered, I suppose we should give a try. I'll tell Chaud when I get back to him."

"I think Arin said she has a day off tomorrow," Flight said, grinning. "So maybe you can come by when Zoet's at school, and then try out the new battle chips before we go on our next mission!"

"That sounds like a good idea, thank you."

 **OOOOOO**

Here we have a chapter in which Chaud actually doesn't show up at all, though he is mentioned a lot because ProtoMan is his Navi, after all.

I think the only chapter where Chaud doesn't physically show up is the prologue, which is entirely from Lan's POV, and since it's a prologue I'm not even remotely sure whether or not that actually counts.

But anyway, an entire chapter full of ProtoMan's POV. I just wanted to show you guys how these solo assignments work, at least for Navis with NetOps (such as ProtoMan or Flight), and I was planning on having these elemental tornadoes show up at some point anyway.

Not to mention, Chaud gets some new battle chips outta this. Though he's gotta make them himself, so I dunno if that counts. Spoiler alert, but he'll be making a total of five battle chips using the machine that Arin has made (and four of them will be elemental tornadoes, the fifth one I'm not gonna say anything about because I want to surprise you guys). I won't actually be showing him making the battle chips, just him using them in practise - which means more fun with the VR system in the training room.

Read and review!


	21. Chapter 21 - Creation Relation

Jesus shit christ, we're at twenty-one chapters and I only originally thought I'd have like twenty . . .

The way we're going, I'll end up writing thirty. Maybe I should write thirty, who knows, I'm not even remotely sure how many chapters the climax is gonna need to take up, and then there's the epilogue after that . . . Ugh so many things I wanna do.

Maybe . . . Hm . . . I think I have a solution. There's not much plot I want to add in before the climax, just one or two more things - one of which is Zoet's sunglasses getting broken so she can get the ones that I drew in her profile image, and the other is what I'm gonna show you guys right now.

So that's just two things. Huh. Not that much then, we're approaching the endgame people, so be prepared!

I'll have to try and read through all of this before I upload it, I don't wanna end up with a thousand and one typos and a whole bunch of plotholes that I can't explain or handwave via ANs. Mind you I'm pretty sure I've more or less followed what I wanted to write to start off with, give or take a few things I threw in for the hell of it, so I guess it's gonna end up pretty much alright.

A'right, let's get on with this.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

They didn't exactly have a time limit for when they had to choose a mission to complete for that day, so the moment they entered HQ, Chaud and Zoet headed straight for the training room. It was already in use, so they just waited around for the people currently using it to finish. Four people, two humans and two Navis, who Zoet introduced as Rex and Tanner and their Navis, Daybreak and Boom. Rex and Daybreak were fairly tame for Underground NetBattlers, while Tanner and Boom lived up to the insane image that Chaud had built over the past few weeks of being here. Tanner had a second Navi by the name of Rhythm, but he was out of the city on a special assignment at the moment.

By the time the two operators were done traning with their Navis, Chaud had learnt something new - never get in the way of any of Boom's bomb attacks, and always duck if Daybreak shouted anything along the lines of 'Shining Storm'.

Somewhat gratefully, he watched the four of them leave - the Navis returning to their PETs as soon as they left the training room - and then turned to face the furthest wall.

"Hello?" he called. Navis could access the level-change system automatically, but humans had to speak to Navi that controlled the VR system - a genderless, steampunk-style robotic Navi by the name of Virtue - directly in order to gain access.

The warm robotic voice rang out throughout the entire room. The way Zoet had explained it was sort of like a cocoon - Virtue was located inside the Core of the VR system, way above their heads, but they also covered the entire training room and therefore could be heard from everywhere at the same volume no matter where in the room you happened to be.

"Greetings, operative Chaud," Virtue said. "Do you wish for a level or an arena?"

"Level, please," Chaud replied. "Rockfield."

A bright flash covered the entire room - Chaud had grown used to it by now and knew in advance to shield his eyes - and when it died down, he and Zoet were standing in the middle of a rocky field similar to the Shining Lake's cavern. But in this field, there was a bright blue sky overhead, and there was no sparkling lake in the centre.

There were, however, plenty of rocks for ProtoMan to test his new battle chips out on.

Chaud and Zoet jacked in their Navis. Virus looked around the rockfield, tilting its head in the way that meant it was curious.

"I have not been in this field for quite some time," it commented. "If I was not a computer program, I would have forgotten what it looked like."

"I almost did, so being a computer program does nothing to help our memory," Flight pointed out. "So, what'd you end up making, anyway?"

It was Flight who had first suggested making the virus data that ProtoMan had gotten from his solo assignment yesterday into battle chips, and also Flight who had offered the use of a battle chip-creating machine that Arin had invented. The machine had worked so well that Chaud had been able to create four entirely new battle chips based on the virus data that ProtoMan had given him, and he'd also decided to make a fifth battle chip just to see if he could.

Now Chaud pulled four of the five battle chips he'd created earlier at Zoet's house out of his pocket, and he showed Zoet, Virus and Flight.

"I made the Elemental Tornado battle chips," he told them. He couldn't resist a proud smile, because these were the first - and possibly only - battle chips that he'd ever made, and he was very certain that no one else on the planet had any that were like them.

"Wow, creative," Zoet snarked.

"That's just the collective name," he said, shrugging. "The names of the individual chips are basically what that Navi - Korock, was it? - called the original tornado viruses. Heat Tornado, Elec Tornado, and so on."

"Even more creative."

"Stop being sarcastic, you're just as interested as we are to see what these things do," Flight chastised Zoet.

Zoet rolled her eyes.

Chaud, meanwhile, refused to have his pride at having created his own battle chips be diminished by Zoet's attitude. He turned to ProtoMan and nodded towards a nearby rock, which looked big enough to test the new chips on.

"How about we try that first?" Chaud suggested. "And I think we'll use the weakest one - the Elec Tornado - first."

"Understood," ProtoMan agreed.

He went over and stood a few feet away from the rock, waiting for Chaud to download the battle chip into the PET. Since this wasn't anything like Blade Cyclone, he didn't need swords on both arms before he could activate the attack. Well, they hoped, anyway. He'd gotten the data while deleting the viruses using Blade Cyclone, but Chaud wasn't entirely sure whether or not the swords had influenced any of the battle chip data.

 _Here's hoping_ , he thought, selecting the Elec Tornado battle chip.

"Elec Tornado," Chaud announced, "download!"

A tornado, yellow in colour and sparking with pure electical energy similar to that of the original virus, sprang up around him to create the Elec Tornado. The difference between the virus and the battle chip was that ProtoMan could change the speed of the tornado to make it more powerful. The faster he made the tornado, the more powerful the Elec energy would become.

The sparks also had the same effect that the original sparks had, which meant they'd have to be careful when using Elec Tornado, otherwise they may end up accidentally deleting important data. But since the erase-sparks (that was what Chaud had decided to call the sparks that deleted data) only had a range of three feet, it was easy to control.

ProtoMan moved forward, creating a torn-up and dull path similar to the one that the original virus had created when it moved, and shredded into the rock. The Elec energy crashed off the rock and sparked in every direction, which wouldn't have done much on its own, except this was a sort of multi-hit attack. Every hit of the Elec Tornado was worth about ten hit points, and the highest number of hits they could score when testing it out on Arin's machine was about fifteen, meaning the highest amount of damage that could be done with Elec Tornado was a total of one-hundred-and-fifty hit points.

The rock broke apart with another final blast of electricity, and ProtoMan slowed down his spinning until the Elec Tornado was gone.

Chaud grinned. The result was even better than he'd hoped for - and Elec Tornado was the weakest of the four Elemental Tornadoes. He couldn't wait to see how powerful the other three were, not to mention the last battle chip.

He glanced at Zoet, just to check her reaction. Her expression hadn't really changed, but she was looking at ProtoMan and the destroyed rock with something like interest in her eyes.

"Impressed yet?" he asked.

"Break something bigger than a digital rock and maybe I will be," was all she said.

He rolled his eyes and turned back to ProtoMan. "Next chip!" he warned his Navi. "Aqua Tornado, download!"

This time the tornado that sprang up around ProtoMan was blue in colour, and streams of water splashed from it as the tornado spun with the Navi directing it. Again, the streams of water were very similar to the original virus - in fact all of the Elemental Tornadoes were similar to their original virus forms - but of course these streams were also somewhat different. ProtoMan was able to control the water streams as if they were whips, albeit very fragile whips. They caused a lot of damage, sure, but broke apart upon contact. Lucky the tornado itself could be used as a weapon as well.

ProtoMan directed the lashing tornado towards a slightly-larger rock, and the streams of water whipped into it without mercy. It certainly wasn't as showy as the Elec Tornado, but it was more powerful and destroyed the rock in less time than the Elec Tornado had done with the previous one.

The Aqua Tornado died down and ProtoMan stepped back quickly, avoiding the leftover water that would try to cascade all over the place - and him. That was one drawback of using the Aqua Tornado, since the water, unlike the other elements, wouldn't just immediately vanish.

"That looked like something Virus would use," Flight commented.

"It does indeed look very interesting," Virus agreed, nodding in a way that Chaud had learnt meant that it was impressed. "If you would not mind, when you are finished demonstrating these battle chips, I would like to enquire-"

"Yes," Chaud said, because they'd probably be here all day otherwise.

"You have my thanks," Virus replied with a nod.

The next rock that Chaud selected to be destroyed for demonstration purposes was more or less the same as the first one.

"That rock, there," he said, pointing it out to ProtoMan. "Heat Tornado, download!"

A red tornado sprang up around ProtoMan this time, and it would have looked like his Blade Cyclone had it not been for the bursts of fire that swirled around with it. The thing with the original virus was that they relied on heat to overpower whatever they were attacking, and so didn't have much in the way of offense. That meant that, unlike most Heat-element battle chips, the Heat Tornado chip was mainly defensive. The flames generated by the tornado could be used as an attack, but as they discovered when testing the chip out on Jackal, it was better used to tire out Navis and/or viruses (they hadn't tested it out on viruses just yet, though).

Since the flames were mostly defensive, that left the offense part almost entirely to the tornado itself, which was actually very powerful. The original virus just had the flames swirling exclusively around with the tornado, but Chaud had managed to make it so that ProtoMan could change the range of the fires - still swirling with the tornado, but he could control how wide he wanted them to be, within a limit of twenty feet of course.

And, as ProtoMan demonstrated on the rock, direct contact with the flames could also cause quite a bit of damage. Since it was fire, it couldn't actually break the rock, so ProtoMan moved the red tornado forward until it was clashing directly with the rock, which broke apart easily after being beaten by the flames.

"I like that one," Zoet said, as the flames died down and ProtoMan came out of the Heat Tornado. "Looks like something I'd use."

"You're not a Navi," Chaud pointed out.

"That's not what I meant and you know it. Stop being a dumb nugget and show us the last one already."

Not the last chip, certainly, but then she knew that. Just the last one of the Elemental Tornado battle chips. Chaud suspected he'd never get over the pride at having created his own battle chips. This was something no one could take from him. Plus it'd be a good tactic to use on Lan when they next battled, he wouldn't be expecting anything like this at all.

"Uh . . . that one, right there," Chaud said. This time he'd selected a rock that looked more sturdier than any of the others had been. A good thing too, because he wanted to show off Wood Tornado properly. "Wood Tornado, download!"

The final tornado that engulfed ProtoMan was green, and the base of this one broke apart the ground as it spun. The Wood Tornado was the closest to the original virus, since Chaud hadn't really seen what else he could do to make it more powerful or even more useful. The original Wood-element tornadoes caused miniature earthquakes around them as they moved around, shattering the ground beneath their bases and carving a broken path in their wake. If a Navi was close enough, those miniature earthquakes could also knock them off-balance, but the range of the earthquake was fairly limited, so Chaud had given it a bigger range to make it more useful.

Most of the power in the Wood Tornado was concentrated in the spin, easily making it the most powerful of the four Elemental Tornadoes due to how much damage it could do. The Wood Tornado easily shattered the rock to pieces, and flung the pieces all over the place - it was only thanks to Virus quickly bringing up a transparent digital shield that it, Chaud, Zoet and Flight didn't get hit by any of them.

Just to show off the sheer power of the Wood Tornado, ProtoMan held onto it for a little longer, ripping into the ground beneath him. Chaud guessed that this Tornado could also be used to drill through networks, but he hadn't tested that theory out just yet.

Once he was done showing off the Wood Tornado, ProtoMan let it die down quickly and stood in the middle of the small crater that he'd created using it.

"I can see why that one's the most powerful," Zoet said, as Virus banished its digital shield with a flick of its clawed hand.

"I certainly don't wanna end up in the middle of that - it looks real painful," Flight added, with a shudder.

"And those were made from just virus data," Chaud said proudly. ProtoMan came to stand by his side, and he felt the Navi pat his shoulder. "The last battle chip I made wasn't based on anything from the cyberworld, and, well . . . this one's my favourite, if I'm honest."

"Aren't you always," Zoet said flatly. "So, what's this last one, then?"

He took out the last battle chip, and showed it to Zoet and her Navis. "I call it Ribbon Whip," Chaud informed them. The picture on the last battle chip showed ProtoMan, half-crouched, holding his arms out wide with two red ribbon-like whips extending from the palms of his hands.

"Okay, that's even dumber-named than the Tornadoes," Zoet said.

"What else am I supposed to call it?" Chaud demanded. "Ribbon Streamer? Red Whip? Crimson Beat?"

"Those sound like stripper names," Flight put in, sniggering.

Chaud was distracted from his anger. "What's a stripper?" he asked.

But ProtoMan shook his head. "Nothing you need to know about," the red-clad Navi told him. "Ever."

"Aw, c'mon, ProtoMan," Flight whined. "He's gonna find out about this kinda stuff at some point, no matter what you do!"

"Zoet learnt about all of this by wasting hours upon hours of her time on a website by the name of Tumblr," Virus added.

"Hey, those hours weren't wasted, I learnt a lot of shit on there," Zoet defended herself.

"You spend way too much time on that stupid website!" Flight exclaimed, exasperated.

"Hi pot, meet kettle."

"What are they talking about?" Chaud asked ProtoMan quietly.

"Absolutely nothing you need to know about, although I'm not sure what this Tumblr thing is myself," ProtoMan admitted. "Maybe we should just show them Ribbon Whip."

"Good idea. Hey, guys!"

Zoet, Flight and Virus looked up.

"You wanna see the battle chip in action or do you wanna argue all evening?" Chaud asked.

"Battle chip," Flight immediately decided.

"Awesome. We don't really need a rock to break for a demonstration, we just kind of need to move away otherwise we'll get, well, whipped," Chaud informed them. Following his own advice, he moved away from ProtoMan to give him enough space. "Okay. Ribbon Whip, download!"

As soon as he downloaded the battle chip into his PET, two red whips emerged from the palms of ProtoMan's hands. The two whips strongly resembled ribbon streamers, which was actually where he'd gotten the idea from - what? He liked the things, they were fun to play with. Chaud had briefly considered making the ribbons actual streamers, including the sticks that the ribbons were tied to so the owner could twirl them around, but then he'd remembered how Flight used Mummify and had actually decided to base the actual attack somewhat on that.

So now all ProtoMan had to do was grip the ribbons, and whip them around. They only resembled ribbon streamers in looks because, if Chaud had used the same physics that actual streamers used, Ribbon Whip would be a completely useless move. So he'd instead made them proper whips that just looked like streamers.

To show them the attack, ProtoMan first whipped the ground - creating a slight crack in the floor. He hit the same crack with the second whip, showing off his accuracy, and then switched to a mid-air attack aimed at an imaginary opponent.

This time his demonstration showed off the speed at which he could attack with the Ribbon Whip, and he showed off a few defensive moves by spinning on the spot to make the ribbons whip around him. That kind of move would hit anything that came anywhere near him, and then ProtoMan came out of the spin quickly and shot off a couple more whips towards his imaginary opponent. Then, to end the demonstration, he launched forward with a follow-up kick, turned to his watching audience, and bowed - just as the Ribbon Whip vanished from his palms.

Flight and Virus actually applauded him, while Zoet crossed her arms and nodded, clearly very impressed despite her misgivings about the ridiculous name.

"Alright, fine," she said to Chaud, as Flight and Virus went over to ProtoMan to ask about the different ways he could use Ribbon Whip. "I admit it. That was actually impressive. And I don't really say that very often, so be happy about it."

"Oh, I am," Chaud assured her, with a smile. "I'm still pretty happy that I made my own battle chips, too!"

"Yeah, not many twelve-year-olds can make five completely unique battle chips," Zoet agreed. "Can anyone use those chips, or are they like Virus's special chip?"

"Well, I haven't tried them with any other Navis aside from ProtoMan," Chaud said uncertainly. "But Flight and Virus wanna try them out, so we may as well see what happens, right?"

"Right," Zoet said. "But not at this moment. We've still gotta select a mission for today, remember."

"Oh, yeah." He'd actually almost forgotten, but at least he could have a chance to test out these chips for real, instead of just in the training room or wherever.

This was gonna be _awesome_ , he just knew it.

 **OOOOOO**

I stand corrected, I think this chapter may end up being the shortest - if this AN doesn't bulk it up, that is.

But anyway, I've just remembered something else I wanted to dump into the story before I got into the climax, but since I don't wanna end up going over thirty chapters, I'm afraid I won't be able to do it. We'll be sticking with one final mission - during which Zoet gets her sunglasses broken and friendship ensues - and then we'll move right along to the climax.

The thing that I wanted to show you guys was War Games and how the Underground NetBattlers, as Shades, would take part. But the only thing I can do with it now is just give it a brief mention via Arin (she mentioned it . . . uh . . . in chapter eighteen, I think? Yeah it was chapter eighteen). But I'm not gonna dump that in here, since it might end up taking more than one chapter and I just wanna get this done before I add too much content.

Next chapter is essentially gonna be somewhat like that one with the kidnapping case, which was chapter . . . eleven? Wow, ten entire chapters ago, that's a really long time . . . Hm . . . I've written a lot for this fic and I may actually end up finishing it. Wow. This is gonna end up being the second fic I've ever completed if I carry on like this, though I don't really like counting the first fic I ever completed because it kinda sucks, honestly, and I deleted it from the internet ages ago anyway.

But moving on, last chapter I introduced everyone to an independent Navi by the name of Korock - anyone wanna guess where his name comes from?

Yup, you guessed it, it comes from the anime. More specifically, it comes from _Rockman EXE Beast_. Korock was one of the suggestions - Lan's suggestion, actually - for Trill's name when he was a baby Navi. I liked the name, so I decided to make Korock as a sort of reference to Trill. Korock's design is, as stated in the fic, very similar to MegaMan's, except he's yellow instead of blue, he doesn't have hair, his body is actually fairly plain (so is his armour but he's still pretty powerful), and he also doesn't have that pack thing on his back.

Actually he kinda resembles another Navi OC I created, Cross EXE, except Cross is a white Navi. I can show you guys a picture of Cross if that'll help you imagine what Korock looks like, just imagine Cross yellow instead of white and you'll get the basic idea.

/0l3l2ssg71e

 _ **(If these links don't work/can't be seen, just PM me for the links and I'll give them to you personally, I'll be more than happy to!)**_

Also Korock's NaviMark isn't the same as Cross's, obviously. It's probably something like a literal rock (since, you know, that's his thing, and he has the Rock Buster), but the X-shaped NaviMark is exclusive to Cross EXE, so Korock EXE is different. Because he's yellow.

Uh, yeah, I think I'll end this here before I end up talking myself into a tangle.

Read and review!


	22. Chapter 22 - Marina Thefts

So thanks to the AN from last chapter, the prologue continues to be the shortest chapter in the entire fic. But that's fine, since I've been trying to give you guys some more chill chapters before we end up in the shitstorm that I'm planning for the climax.

Anyway, this particular mission that I'm writing now is one of the assigned ones, like the Inky incident from a while ago. Zoet and Chaud get to explain the details since anything I say here would be considered spoilers, except for the whole 'Zoet gets her sunglasses broken and friendship ensues' thing from last chapter's AN.

Moving on, let's get straight into this before I end up blabbing something I shouldn't.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

It was their second assigned mission and Zoet was finding absolutely everything wrong with it.

"I hate this," she announced, for the fifth time in the past fifteen minutes. She adjusted her sunglasses and scowled up at the open sky, where the sun was glaring down at them. Then she winced, having accidentally looked directly into the sun, and looked back at Chaud, who was half-hidden in the shadows. "I especially hate you."

"What did I do?" Chaud, totally bewildered, asked.

"You get to hide and not get blinded by the evil sun, that's what," his friend snapped. "I just blinded myself and I'm blaming you."

"But . . . you're the one who looked into the sun?"

"Still blaming you."

"I can't control what you-"

"Your fault entirely."

Chaud sighed and gave up arguing.

Zoet was wearing normal clothes - which would have been fine had it not been for the fact that they were currently on an assigned mission, directly from a member of Kris's personal team at HQ, to catch a thief who had been giving the scientists at the marina some trouble over the past few days. The reason why Zoet was wearing normal clothes was because they were trying to lure him out, so she had agreed to be the bait in order to make him let his guard down. Apparently the guy preferred attacking 'defenceless' targets to steal whatever valuables they may or may not have had.

'Defenceless' was the last word that Chaud would ever use to describe Zoet, but Chaud couldn't be the bait because the thief would get suspicious if he saw someone wandering around without sunglasses. That would be the first indicator that this was all a trap, because most Nowhere City natives wore sunglasses when they were outside.

Of course, the same wasn't true of the people who worked at the marina - some of them were used to the sun and didn't actually need sunglasses, but they also looked like actual scientists, so it was easy to tell them apart. Meanwhile, a visitor from the city could easily be someone important, and a lone target would be very tempting for the guy they were tracking.

So Zoet was hanging out in the open, sunglasses on, and Chaud was hiding in the shadows nearby, wearing his battle suit to blend in.

"Why couldn't you just pretend to need these things?" Zoet grumbled. "Honestly, I hate being bait."

"So you've said," Chaud sighed. "And I don't like wearing sunglasses, so there."

"The hell do you think you're wearing on your head right now, you moron?"

"A visor, which is entirely different to sunglasses, and-"

"Incoming," ProtoMan suddenly warned him. Chaud shut up and pressed himself against the wall as far as he would go, for once glad that he was fairly skinny - that'd make it easier to hide.

Flight and Virus had probably warned Zoet as well, because she went quiet almost the same time as Chaud did, and went back to pretending to just be hanging around for no apparent reason.

Okay, this probably wasn't the best plan, but it was the best that a couple of kids could come up with on short notice.

But it turned out they didn't need to freak out just yet, because it was just a small group of marine scientists walking past. They recognised Zoet mainly because of her mother, Arin, who had occasionally shown up at the marina to help them with the odd bit of whatever, like maintenance or even assisting in the actual research that went on around here. This was actually pretty helpful, especially if the thief was watching Zoet right now. These scientists knowing her would mark her as an interesting person and thus a bigger target.

Which Zoet wasn't happy about, but that was also one more reason why she was the bait instead of Chaud - these scientists didn't know him at all.

"Best not to talk anymore, the thief may be watching," ProtoMan said quietly.

"Yeah," Chaud agreed. There was a better hiding spot just to his right, so he shifted along the wall and darted across the alley, keeping himself hidden as much as possible.

The new hiding spot gave him a better view, too, so when a man came skulking along the seaside path from up ahead, Chaud spotted him first and was able to warn ProtoMan, who sent a silent email to Zoet's PET to warn her and her Navis in turn.

"He looks suspicious," Chaud whispered.

"He does," ProtoMan agreed, "but of course we can't automatically assume everyone's a criminal based on simple descriptions. Remember that one time you tried to interrogate a completely random woman?"

"I thought she was part of World Three," Chaud muttered defensively. "The description I had back then was vague at best and useless at worst, so forgive me for not being able to decode it properly. All we have now is 'he'll probably be alone, skulking around the edge of the marina, and he'll be wearing dark clothes'."

"Well, this man fits all three of those, but that still doesn't mean-"

The skulking man suddenly broke into a sprint and barreled into Zoet.

"I stand corrected," ProtoMan said.

"GET OFF ME," Zoet shouted, shoving the man off and jumping up to face him. The skulking man scowled and launched himself at her again, and they grappled together for a moment before Zoet decided to screw all pretenses of being 'defenceless'.

She kneed him in the stomach and kicked him away while he was wheezing, and then advanced on him.

But he wasn't taken by surprise like most people Zoet beat up, and instead of backing away, he met her head-on. Once again they grappled, each getting in some punches or kicks here and there.

"Don't," ProtoMan hissed, when Chaud took a step forward. "Remember the plan."

The plan consisted of Zoet pretending to get beaten (even though she could easily kick the guy's ass) and then Chaud chasing after him when he ran off with whatever he could get his hands on. They'd planted a fake data disk in one of her pockets, and were sort of hoping he'd go for that rather than her PET, since the data disk may have more value than the custom-made PET.

Even if it helped them complete their mission, it didn't mean Chaud had to like it.

The man suddenly 'gained the upper hand' and threw Zoet to the ground, pinning her there - Chaud was pretty sure he wasn't the only one willing her not to go utterly ballistic - so he could search through her pockets. As expected, he found the fake data disk and immediately assumed it was something important, but then he also found her PET and took that as well.

Zoet didn't even bother with words, she was too pissed off. She went straight for the thief and started pummeling him, but he somehow managed to slip away and, clearly realising he'd bit off more than he could chew, backed away. Unfortunately Zoet wasn't one to forgive so easily, nor was she the type of person to allow anyone to get away, so she launched herself at him and drove him to the ground.

"Maybe we won't even need to chase him down," Chaud said hopefully. "Zoet can just beat him up and- oh no-"

The thief had just seized Zoet and had shoved her to one side, dislodging her sunglasses - and when she opened her eyes, she was facing the sun, and so she got a full blast of natural, burning light right in her face.

" _Motherfucker_ ," she spat, backing up with her arms covering her eyes.

The thief, taking advantage of her distraction, burst forward and gave her a hard shove to the back. Zoet stumbled blindly and ended up on her ass, and then the thief glanced at the sunglasses that were now sitting innocently at his feet.

 _Crunch._

"Oh, she's gonna be pissed," Chaud winced, as the thief lifted his foot and brushed off the broken remains of the sunglasses.

Then the thief ran off, leaving Zoet cringing on the ground and Chaud stunned in the shadows.

After a moment, he managed to collect himself and he rushed out to check on Zoet.

"You okay?" he asked frantically, about to put his hand on her shoulder - he quickly stopped himself just in time. She was pretty pissed off right now, he didn't want to make it worse.

"He stole my PET, you stupid fuck!" Zoet hissed, not taking her arms away from her eyes. "No, I am not okay! And I'm blind! Shit, I'm blind!"

"You're not blind," Chaud told her. He doubted anyone, even a Nowhere City native, would go blind just from a brief look at the sun. "You're just not used to the sun."

"Why in hell's name are you still here?" Zoet demanded. Chaud blinked. "Get after that asshole, already! Get my PET back!"

"But-"

"Get my PET back or so help me _god_ I will pluck out your eyeballs and _force them down your gullet_!"

"O-okay," Chaud most certainly did not squeak.

 **oooo**

"Jack in, Red Shade," Chaud said a few minutes later, after chasing after the thief and finding absolutely nothing.

The infrared beam jacked his Navi into the control panel of the security camera, giving him access to any and all cameras that were scattered around the marina. They'd done a quick check of the place before actually carrying out their mission and had discovered that there were numerous cameras around, but whether or not any of them were going to be of any use at the moment had yet to be seen.

A window appeared on one side of his HUD, showing him ProtoMan and everything that he could see. A digital version of the control panel - much more impressive and complex than its real world counterpart - was in front of him.

As Chaud started off through the maze of streets and alleys that made up the outdoors parts of the marina, ProtoMan began hacking into the security cameras to try and figure out where the thief had run off to.

This time Chaud kept his full attention on his own search. If ProtoMan found anything, he'd let Chaud know immediately.

With ProtoMan's help, he managed to clear a few areas of being potential hiding-places for the thief. He wasn't indoors, because they'd requested Mythril's assistance and she had shut down every single electronic lock she could reach from where she was usually stationed in the marina's network, which left Chaud free to check everywhere outside.

"I found him," ProtoMan reported a few minutes later. "He's near the edge of the marina - it looks like he's heading somewhere specific. He's in the eastern sector. Oh, wait a moment."

Chaud glanced at the window showing him ProtoMan, and actually stopped in his tracks when he spotted what ProtoMan had seen.

"He's heading for the Cliff path," Chaud realised. "He might be going for the city."

"In which case, you can catch him fairly easily - I just sent an image of what he looks like to the security team on duty in the Gondola station," ProtoMan informed Chaud. "If he goes there, he'll be stopped."

"Good job," Chaud said.

He headed for the eastern sector of the marina. By the time he reached the gate that led onto the Cliff path, the thief was long gone - where, they weren't sure, but Chaud jacked ProtoMan out and headed off down the Cliff path anyway.

But when he checked with the security team at the Gondola station, he found that the thief hadn't come through there. The only people who had come through in the past two hours were Chaud and Zoet themselves. He trusted the security team's skills and took them at their word, so he went back outside and paused, looking around as if he could spot the thief from where he was standing right now.

"Where could he have gone?" Chaud wondered.

"Perhaps he's gone to find another entrance into the city," ProtoMan suggested.

Chaud shook his head. "I doubt it," he said. "Any other entrances are on the other side of the city - he'd need to climb right up the cliff and go straight through the old city ruins to get to them."

"What if there's an entrance no one knows about? Arin showed us that secret lake in the unused tramline tunnels, there could be something similar here."

"I'll check along the cliff," Chaud decided, because ProtoMan's idea made the most sense to him.

Instead of heading toward the Cliff path, Chaud went in the opposite direction. He was grateful that there was a path along the cliff here as well, but it wasn't a beach path - no, this path was in fact made entirely from rocks that had fallen from the cliff, and while they were fairly sturdy, it was extremely awkward to walk over them. Chaud had to crouch down and go on his hands and feet in some places, the path was so uneven.

And all the while he had to force himself to keep an eye out for an opening in the cliff face, or even just the tiniest something that didn't look quite right. ProtoMan contributed by scanning the cliff for any signs of a tunnel or hollow caves (aside from the Gondola river and Nowhere City itself), but found nothing useful aside from one or two loose rocks that would have fallen on Chaud's head had he not warned him in time.

"I can see why this path is off-limits," ProtoMan said, after Chaud had dodged yet another falling rock.

Chaud froze in place. "This path is off-limits?" he repeated. An idea began to form in his mind.

"Didn't you see the sign?" ProtoMan asked, a frown in his voice. Then he paused. "Wait, what are you thinking about?"

"Maybe there's not a secret entrance," Chaud said. "If this path is supposed to be off-limits and it's so unstable, no one would ever come down here. They tend to take rockslides very seriously in Nowhere."

"You think the thief could be hiding somewhere along the path rather than using a secret entrance into the city?" ProtoMan guessed.

"Yeah," Chaud replied, starting off again - this time paying more attention to his surroundings rather than just the cliff. "I'm not a hundred percent certain, but if he's stealing valuable data and technology from the marina, he'll probably hide somewhere that Nowhere City natives won't go. That is, outside and in an unstable area."

"I don't know, some people in the city do like going to unstable areas," ProtoMan said skeptically. He was probably thinking about the Shining Lake.

"They're the weird ones," Chaud said, climbing over a particularly large boulder. "Arin isn't exactly the most mature person on the planet, and Zoet considers scaling a building to be a fun pastime. Though I have to admit they both still take safety pretty seriously." Now he was thinking of how Arin - working together with Lan - had pulled Chaud out of that rockslide almost a full week ago. And Zoet had always told Chaud off whenever he did something incredibly stupid by her standards, which was often.

"But you do have a point about this," ProtoMan admitted. "I'll continue scanning the cliff just in case, though."

"Right, just because we've come up with a new theory doesn't mean we can discard our old one," Chaud agreed. "I'll try and keep an eye out for anywhere that could be a good hiding place."

"Mind you don't fall into the rocks," ProtoMan warned him.

Chaud rolled his eyes. ProtoMan was never gonna let him forget that.

This path was much, much longer than the Cliff path, and even after almost half an hour, he could still see the docks in the distance behind him. But coming up ahead of him was a bend, which he couldn't see around, so Chaud made his way over to the cliff and pressed himself up against it, keeping himself out of sight.

He peered around the corner, and his eyes widened.

"Ah," ProtoMan said quietly, in the tone of someone who had just found a gold mine. "I believe we've found our thief."

Around the corner and far ahead of them there was a long strip of land resembling a natural bridge. That bridge connected to a small island, upon which stood a large rock about the size of a small house. A dark shape was slinking towards the rock.

"Zoom in," Chaud told ProtoMan quietly.

Almost like binoculars, the visor zoomed in on the dark shape - it was indeed the thief from the marina, and he was carrying both the fake data disc and Zoet's PET. He was looking around shiftily, checking that no one was watching him, and then he reached out and pushed something on the rock. A moment later, there was a rumbling sound from within the rock, and suddenly a gaping hole opened up.

Chaud and ProtoMan stared in amazement, but the thief was obviously used to this and he went straight in. The hole closed up after him.

"I know this place is kinda weird," Chaud said after a moment, "but this is just ridiculous. A proper secret hideout with a proper secret door? Really?"

"We've dealt with weirder back in Electopia," ProtoMan pointed out. "Though I have to admit this is a little silly . . ."

"Right?" Chaud huffed. He stepped out from the corner, carefully making his way over to the bridge.

"Be careful," ProtoMan suddenly warned him.

Chaud, about to put his foot on the bridge to start walking over, paused. "Why?" he asked. "It's just a bridge."

"Exactly; and a fairly low one, at that. Look at the waves, there - see how they almost lap over the bridge itself? If the tide comes in, this bridge will be covered in seawater," ProtoMan explained. "You might get trapped on the other side."

"Why can't I just walk back across?" Chaud wondered. "I mean, the bridge'll still be there, won't it?"

"It will be, but the water will be covering it, and the force of the waves might knock you into the ocean."

Chaud winced. "Ah," he said. "I didn't think of that. But . . . what choice do I have? It's either get trapped on a small island or let this guy get away with everything he's done. Besides, if I do get trapped, I can always wait for the tide to go down, right?"

"Yes," ProtoMan said slowly, "but I'd rather you not rely on that. Nature is very fickle at times."

"I'll be careful," Chaud assured his Navi. "And I can always call for help if I need it."

"Well, as long as you _are_ careful . . ."

"I will be."

"Go ahead, then," ProtoMan agreed, though reluctantly.

Now that he'd been warned about the possible danger, Chaud was more wary of the bridge as he walked across it. The bridge was actually a lot narrower than the walkways that criss-crossed overhead in the city, and he still found those very daunting to walk on - so you could imagine his sudden fear of falling over the edge here, into the water.

Luckily he made it across without incident, and went straight up to the rock to examine it.

"How did he open this?" Chaud muttered, half to himself.

"Hold on a moment - allow me to scan it, I may find something," ProtoMan said.

Chaud stepped back and waited until ProtoMan was finished scanning the rock with the systems built into the battle suit. A quiet beep indicated the finished scan.

"That rock is actually artificial," ProtoMan reported. "The tunnel system underneath us isn't, however, but thankfully it's not very long or complicated, and it appears to end at a large space. The perfect hiding place, honestly. I guess he - or whoever - built this rock over the entrance to the tunnels to stop the water from flooding it constantly."

"So, how do I get in?" Chaud asked. That at least was good to know - he wouldn't be walking in blindly, and it didn't sound as if there were any other entrances or exits aside from this one.

"There's a hidden panel to your right - put your hand here," ProtoMan said.

Using the HUD, ProtoMan lit up where the panel was, and Chaud placed his hand over it.

"Now press down."

He did as he was told, and stepped back. For a moment, nothing happened, and Chaud began to wonder whether or not the entrance was coded to work only for one specific person. But then the rock rumbled and the same hole opened up for him, allowing him access into the tunnel system below.

"It's set close as soon as whoever opened it goes inside," ProtoMan informed him.

Chaud stepped inside and glanced over his shoulder. The hole in the rock closed up behind him, and now he could definitely see the artificial part of the rock - apparently whoever had created it hadn't bothered to decorate the inside to make it look like a rock, and it was all grey technological-panelling. In the middle of the small room formed by the hollow inside of the rock, there was a hole with a ladder going down.

"It goes down ten feet," ProtoMan told him.

"Do you know the quickest way to the space at the end?" Chaud asked, as he climbed down the ladder.

"Just give me a moment to map it out."

It literally took a moment, too, because as soon as Chaud put his feet on the ground, ProtoMan had finished mapping out the route for him. He brought up a simple map of the tunnel system - and it really wasn't that large, the unused tunnels in the city were more complicated than this - and highlighted the route that Chaud was to take.

"I detected one life-sign in the space up ahead," ProtoMan said.

"At least we didn't stumble into a smuggling ring or something," Chaud muttered. The thief was alone in this place, and if Chaud could knock him out without a fight, all the better.

Besides, he kinda wanted to get some payback for that guy breaking Zoet's sunglasses. And Zoet herself would probably want a piece of him too, although how many pieces he would be in when she was finished with him was anyone's guess.

As he got closer to the space up ahead, Chaud kept his footsteps as quiet as possible and didn't speak to ProtoMan, only replying to his Navi's quiet instructions with nods or shakes of his head, moving along carefully. The only reason he could see where he was going was because ProtoMan had activated night-vision, but Chaud could guess that the thief knew these tunnels so well that he probably didn't need sight to get around them.

But the space definitely had lighting in it. When he spotted brightness coming up at the end of the tunnel, Chaud whispered for ProtoMan to deactivate the night-vision and he was able to use that light to move forward.

He flattened himself against the wall and peered around the edge of the wall.

The space was relatively large, certainly big enough to fit all of the stolen things that the criminal had collected. Various computers, data disks, PETs, and other technological items were scattered all around the room, and Chaud could see a mattress tucked away in one corner with a ratty blanket covering it.

On that mattress sat the thiefl, turning the fake data disk over in his hands. There was a thin laptop next to him, and as Chaud watched, he slipped the disk into the laptop and tapped away at the keys for a few moments.

Then he muttered a curse. So he'd found out it was a fake, then.

"Any ideas?" ProtoMan murmured.

Chaud shook his head. He had been hoping to be able to throw something heavy, but anything heavy in this room was also valuable and potentially extremely important equipment, so that was out of the question. And he wasn't even sure he could lift any of this stuff even if he thought it would help, some of it looked far too heavy for a twelve-year-old to pick up.

He could try running out and scaring the man. Maybe the surprise at his appearance would be enough to immobilise him long enough for Chaud to kick him in the head or something.

But again his age - not to mention small size - were against him. He couldn't be sure that kicking a full-grown man in the head would be enough to knock him out, and even if it did, what could he do afterwards? Tie him up with the blanket? That didn't sound like a good idea even in his head.

" . . . Chaud," ProtoMan said, "do you remember when you first got the battle suit? And you tried it on for the first time? Zoet explained all of the functions in as much detail as possible. Do you remember?"

Chaud nodded to show he'd heard him, though he couldn't understand why ProtoMan was talking about this now.

"Zoet said there's a special function installed into the suit's systems," ProtoMan went on. "In case of an emergency, a Navi is able to take over control from the operator inside of the battle suit."

Oh. That was what he was on about.

"I . . . I think this qualifies as an emergency," ProtoMan said quietly. "There's nothing you can do right now, not without going back and letting him escape while you go and find reinforcements - but I might be able to do something."

It sounded like a good idea in theory, but there was just one problem - ProtoMan would be using Chaud's body, and even if he was a Navi, he was still using the body of a twelve-year-old against a full-grown man. All the skills in the world wouldn't change that. Oh, Chaud wished Zoet was here, she may have been as short as he was, but she was definitely a lot stronger - or at least just not as conscious of her own weaknesses as he was of his.

"ProtoMan-" Chaud began.

But apparently even the slightest whisper was enough to alert the thief to someone else's presence in his hideout. He sprang to his feet, dropping the laptop on the mattress, and looked in Chaud's direction - though Chaud had made sure he couldn't be seen.

"Who's there?" the thief demanded. His voice echoed through the tunnels and Chaud winced. "Show yourself, or I'll come out there!"

"Chaud, please, this might be our only chance," ProtoMan whispered urgently, as footsteps signalled the thief coming over.

"I warn you, I'm armed!" the thief shouted. His footsteps were getting closer.

Something flashed on the HUD - words. ProtoMan wanted to activate the special function.

 _ACTIVATE NAVI CONTROL?_ the words on the HUD asked him.

"Hey!" the thief snapped. He was too close.

Chaud didn't give himself time to think.

"Yes," he whispered.

The words vanished, and immediately he felt his body go limp - except he stayed standing up, because ProtoMan had taken full control and was keeping him upright.

The thief was almost here now, but before he came into sight, ProtoMan moved Chaud's body forward and into the light - into the thief's sight. The thief paused, and a familiar look of panic flashed across his face.

"A Shade," he breathed, starting to back away. "Y-you're a . . ." Then he frowned, and stopped backing away to peer at Chaud closely. "You're just a kid." Now he sounded confused, rather than scared.

"I'm still a Shade, and you're under arrest for multiple accounts of assault and theft," Chaud said, more confidently than he felt.

But finding out that his opponent - while still being a Shade - was just a kid had given the thief a boost in confidence. He was smug now, and he sneered at Chaud.

"Oh yeah?" he taunted. "And how're you gonna arrest me, huh? Gonna cry until I submit?"

Chaud got the strange feeling that this was exactly how video game characters felt when players moved them around, as ProtoMan moved him forward to face off against the thief. He crouched into a fighting position, one similar to something he'd seen ProtoMan do, except it was a little awkward. ProtoMan wasn't used to a flesh and blood body, even if he wasn't actually in it, and he was having to compensate for that - not to mention he couldn't activate any swords like this.

"Aw, does the widdle baby Shade wanna boop me?" the thief cooed.

"You have so got to die," ProtoMan muttered.

Chaud really hoped he was kidding.

All at once, ProtoMan made him explode forward - surprising both Chaud and the thief, who clearly hadn't expected such a violent attack. Maybe it was having his operator insulted, or perhaps it was Chaud's earlier panic, or maybe both, but whatever it was that made him so angry, ProtoMan launched his operator's body at the thief in a manner similar to that of an extremely-pissed-off Zoet.

Chaud wasn't sure how this function worked - his body was still inside the battle suit as it was moving, he was just limp and couldn't move, and yet ProtoMan was somehow able to put all of his (or Chaud's) strength and speed behind his blows.

It was clumsy and strange and Chaud decided he really didn't like this, because even though he wasn't doing anything he was still getting out of breath, but ProtoMan made it work somehow. He drove the thief across the room, punching and kicking and slapping where he could, keeping a pace that forced the thief to stay defensive.

The thief tripped over a few stray wires attached to an old-looking computer, and ProtoMan took the opportunity with both hands. He made Chaud jump onto the thief and continue attacking him, and then suddenly reached over to the side and grabbed what looked like a DVD player, though it strongly resembled a light grey brick.

He brought it crashing down on the thief's head, successfully knocking him out, and then sat up. New words flashed across the HUD.

 _DEACTIVATE NAVI CONTROL?_ they read.

"Yes," ProtoMan said.

And suddenly Chaud was back in control, and he almost collapsed onto the unconscious man. His limbs felt like jelly.

"Oh my god," Chaud gasped. "I never want to do that again."

"I can certainly see why that function is only used in emergencies," ProtoMan mused. "Can you stand?"

"Give me a minute," Chaud said. "Hey, ProtoMan . . ."

"Yes?"

"What . . . what was that, before you starting beating him up? The 'you have so got to die' thing?" Chaud asked tentatively.

ProtoMan now sounded acutely embarrassed. "Uh, well . . ." He cleared his throat. "That was . . . a reference. To a movie. That. Um. That Flight showed me."

"And what movie was this?"

" . . . _I, Robot_."

"Did you enjoy it?"

"Er, yes."

"Well, okay then," Chaud sighed. "Just, um, don't go around saying that people've gotta die. It's . . . weird."

"Okay," ProtoMan replied.

 **oooo**

He called the actual police to arrest the thief - no matter what Chaud said, Shades didn't actually have the authority to arrest anyone, since the Underground NetBattlers were essentially legal vigilantes - and let them sort out everything that had been stolen, but he grabbed Zoet's PET before anyone else could spot it.

When he got back to the marina to return it, he found that some scientists had taken pity on her and had given her a new pair of sunglasses, although from the way she was complaining, they were doing absolutely nothing to help fend off the glare of the 'evil sun'. In fact she said they were so useless that she had no use for them, and just ripped them off and chucked them into the ocean - much to the displeasure of the scientist who had given them to her - and took back her PET with an irritated huff.

Though she did thank him for getting back her PET. She also, when he told her about how he and ProtoMan had defeated the thief, asked how it felt to be controlled by a Navi - she herself had never actually used the Navi control function and was curious about what it was like, but after hearing Chaud's account of it, she didn't seem all too enthusiastic about it anymore.

Later, after they had reported the mission as completed and Zoet had gone back home, leaving Chaud to his own devices for the rest of the day, he went out and walked around the Cultural District's shops. He was looking for something specific, though everything he'd found so far wasn't what he thought would be appropriate.

But since he wanted to do this, not for his own sake but for his friend's, he was going to stick with it.

And finally his efforts paid off, and he found exactly what he was looking for in a custom-design glasses shop.

"These ones should do, right?" he asked, holding them up for ProtoMan to see.

"Hm . . . weren't her other ones reflective, though? Do you think she'd want another pair like that?" ProtoMan wondered.

"All the reflective ones are too small or too ridiculous to be of any use," Chaud pointed out.

"Good point."

ProtoMan peered closely at the sunglasses Chaud was holding up, and smiled.

"Is there any particular reason these resemble my visor, Chaud?" he asked teasingly.

Chaud felt very awkward all of a sudden. "N-no," he said. "I mean, they don't look like yours, not completely - they're not as pointed at the top . . . more flat."

"They still look like mine," ProtoMan said. "Is that why you think these ones are the best we've seen so far?"

"Well, okay, that's part of the reason," Chaud admitted. "But the other reason is that none of the other pairs we've found come with this." He held up something else that came with the pair of sunglasses he was currently holding.

"Another good point," ProtoMan said, nodding. "So, these ones, then?"

Chaud looked at the sunglasses, and then nodded. "I think so. I only hope she actually accepts them, rather than just chuck them in the ocean . . ." he added in a mutter.

"Worst comes to worst, you can always wear them," ProtoMan suggested brightly.

"I don't like sunglasses."

He went to the Jungle District after buying the sunglasses and the item that had come with them, and found his way to Zoet's tree-mansion with quite a bit of directional assistance from ProtoMan.

Chaud rang the doorbell and waited.

When it opened, he was execting either Arin or Zoet herself - he wasn't expecting a cleaning robot with a dustpan in its mechanical hands. There was a screen where its face would be, and on that screen was Jackal.

"Oh, hello," Jackal greeted him. "I wasn't expecting you - did you and Zoet make plans for today, or something? Aside from the usual?"

"Ah, no," Chaud replied, suddenly fully awkward now that he was here. "Could . . . could you get Zoet for me? I have something for her."

"I hope it's not flowers, she hates flowers. Unless they're cacti."

"Of course she'd like the deadly plants," Chaud muttered. "No, it's not flowers."

"I'll go and get her then," Jackal said. The cleaning robot turned around and vanished into the mansion, leaving Chaud waiting around at the front door.

He only had to wait a few minutes until Zoet came walking down the hall towards him. She looked a little surprised to see him, but didn't mention anything when she stopped in front of him and crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow.

"What, you have another fight with your friends?" she asked.

"I have something for you, actually," Chaud replied. He held out the bag he'd put the purchases in. "Here."

"These had better not be flowers," Zoet said, though she did take the bag off him. "I don't like flowers - unless they're cactuses. Best plants ever, those are."

"They're not flowers," Chaud said, exasperated.

Zoet shrugged and stuck her hand into the bag. She paused, staring into the bag, and then slowly raised her head to look at Chaud.

"I, um, thought you would appreciate a new pair," Chaud said awkwardly, suddenly finding his feet very interesting.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Zoet pull the sunglasses out of the bag. He couldn't resist the temptation to look up and gauge her reaction, but her expression was strangely blank as she examined them.

"They look kinda like ProtoMan's," she eventually said. But before Chaud could even come up with a response to that, she put the sunglasses on and looked around with them. Unlike her old reflective sunglasses, he could see her eyes (though in shade) and could easily see that she was fairly impressed. "I like 'em."

Chaud instantly felt relieved. He gestured to the bag, smiling. "There's also something else in there," he told her.

Zoet glanced at him, and then went back into the bag. She pulled out a dark-coloured strap, the thing that had come with the sunglasses, and looked at it curiously.

"It's a strap," Chaud explained, probably unnecessarily, but he felt like he had to explain. "You, uh, you can slip the strap on or off, depends on what you want, and I thought . . . well, since your old pair got broken after they fell off, the strap might be able to help if anything like that happens again . . ."

To his utter shock, Zoet actually smiled at him. He was too stunned to form a word, he'd never seen her smile (only smirk) before, and then Zoet reached out and gave him a friendly pat on top of his head.

"Thanks, Chaud," she said. "I'll see you tomorrow - it's Monday, so we're doing the evening shift, remember. Can't have every day be a Sunday, after all. See you."

By the time he'd managed to get his voice back, Zoet had closed the door and he was just standing there like an idiot.

"Did she just-" he began.

"Yes," ProtoMan replied.

"And she called me-"

"Uh-huh." He sounded as shocked as Chaud felt.

Chaud just stared into space for a moment. Then he recovered slightly. "Well, uh, that was . . . unexpected," he said. "I guess . . . we should go?"

But when he was sitting on the tram to the Haven District, he found that he just couldn't stop smiling.

 **OOOOOO**

God, you have no idea how difficult it was to write Zoet pretending to get her ass kicked, it was practically torture . . . I kept thinking 'how would this guy manage to overpower Zoet and break her sunglasses?' and then I kept thinking 'but she beat up that other guy really easily and he was bigger than this one'.

In the end I had to decide on just having her pretend to get beaten, which led to the unfortunate circumstances of her sunglasses getting broken, and also gave me the opportunity to show off one of the battle suit's unique functions - the Navi control function.

That was actually a little bit unplanned, since most of the suit's functions I haven't really thought about or explained, but it does make sense for something as high-tech as that to have a function such as that. And as you can plainly see, it's only for emergencies for a very good reason, mainly because it's just the weirdest sensation on the planet.

But anyway, Zoet now has the sunglasses that I drew for her in her design, and friendship has ensued.

Meaning, of course, that we can get into the climax chapters starting from next chapter!

Read and review!


	23. Chapter 23 - Endgame Start

We're starting off with Lan's POV and may actually end up going for his POV for the majority if not all of the chapter, since pretty much all of this that I wanna write at the moment I've imagined to be from his POV.

Why, you ask?

Because it's fun to confuse people who don't know what the hell's going on.

But yeah this is where things get slightly more serious - although some of the dialogue won't exactly reflect that, since Zoet is one of the main characters, and I've actually based most of my dialogue on what I read from the _Skulduggery Pleasant_ series (which is the greatest book series on the entire planet and no one will ever convince me otherwise).

I say 'based on', by which I mean I've taken a leaf out of Derek Landy's book and I'm giving everyone Casual Danger Dialogue or just plain crazy-talk because I can.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Lan and his family were having a day out all to themselves - it was just gonna be Hikaris today, just him, his brother, his dad, and his mom. Everyone else were just doing whatever, but this was a family day out, something that they hadn't had for a while, if only because Dad was almost always busy with work. Which Lan didn't mind, because Dad was the best dad on the planet, and he knew his dad was always doing his best.

But anyway, this was a fun day out. It was kind of a shame that the Bomb Festival ended a couple of weeks ago, because then they could have gone out to have fun there, but Dad had gotten a lot of advice on good places to go from the team of scientists at the Navi Research Labs, so they ended up going practically everywhere.

In Lan's opinion, the best place was the Cultural District, which was where they were right now. Mom was endlessly fascinated by the colourful artwork all over the district, especially the chalk drawings on the ground in the district's pyramid square. They even had a look inside the Sun Pyramid, which turned out to be an awesome idea because there was some sort of exhibition going on - though it turned out the exhibition, called the Cultural Arts Fest, was always going on. The exhibitions just changed from time-to-time.

The Arts Fest was awesome and Lan spent a lot of time dragging his parents around there, because this particular exhibition was all about games. They didn't have modern games, which was a bit of a shame, but instead the exhibition concentrated on older retro-style games like _Pac-Man_ and stuff. MegaMan liked the old _Sonic_ games the best, which Lan suspected was because of their very similar colour schemes.

"So, where do you want to go next?" Dad asked, when they finally came out of the Arts Fest.

"ProtoMan told me there's this really cool shopping centre near the back of the district," MegaMan said. "I wanna see what they've got there - can we go, Dad? Mom?"

"Of course we can, I'd like to see this shopping centre as well," Mom agreed cheerfully.

"D'you think they've got game shops?" Lan wondered.

"Are games the only thing you think about?" MegaMan sighed.

"Well, no, I think about curry too."

"Of course you do."

It would be quite a walk to get to the very back of the Cultural District, since this was the biggest district in the entire city, so they took a bus. At first Lan had been surprised that buses were in Nowhere City, but after he'd gotten used to it, he realised how silly it was of him to assume that there were no buses - a city this big would need buses, even if the districts were all connected by tunnels rather than invisible borders or something.

They got to the shopping centre - it was really big and the inside was just as colourful and cool as the rest of the district - and looked around at their own leisure. Lan even found a shop that not only sold games, but other cool tech stuff as well. He ended up looking at a few custom PETs, which were incredibly expensive, though it was difficult to tell because he couldn't read any of the words.

By the time lunch rolled around, Lan and MegaMan had ran around to about half of the shops they'd spotted (or Lan had run around and MegaMan had tried to direct him, but had given up halfway through to let him run wild), but Lan was having far too much fun to think about getting food for once.

"We're off to find a food court," Dad said to Lan. "Do you want to come? Or would you like to explore some more?"

Lan, currently window-shopping at a comic shop, glanced up at his parents.

"I'd like to explore some more, if that's okay?" Lan asked. His parents were pretty cool with letting him wander around on his own, so long as he had MegaMan with him at all times to keep him safe. But still, it didn't hurt to ask for permission. Er, sometimes.

"Of course that's okay, just come and find us when you're done - you don't want to go hungry, after all!" Mom giggled.

Lan and MegaMan waved goodbye to their parents, and continued window-shopping.

 **oooo**

He finally decided he'd had enough of window-shopping, and asked MegaMan to try and figure out where the nearest food court was.

"You're lucky I downloaded a map of this place before we wandered around," MegaMan huffed good-naturedly.

MegaMan was able to direct Lan towards the second floor of the shopping centre, where there was an entire section dedicated entirely to the food court. There were different restaurants and things here, and Lan kept an eye out for his parents while he searched for somewhere that would be selling his all-time-favourite food, curry.

Even if he couldn't read the signs or words, he knew curry - the smell, the look, everything about it. He'd be able to tell a curry shop from a mile off.

He accidentally bumped into someone as he was walking around the food court, and he stepped back to apologise.

"Oh, sorry, I didn't-" Lan cut himself off abruptly. The guy he'd walked into was very big and looked like he could snap Lan like a twig, and he didn't look too pleased.

The big man looked at him for a moment, and then looked at a piece of paper in his hand. This apparently meant something to him, because after studying the piece of paper, he nodded and looked back at Lan.

"You Lan Hikari?" the man asked.

"Uh . . . y-yeah . . ." Lan said. He was reminded very much of his first time in Netopia when he got mugged several times in a single day.

"I have a message for you," the man informed him. He put the piece of paper away - it was probably a picture, now that Lan thought about it - and then handed Lan another piece of paper, folded up carefully into a note.

Once the man had given him the folded note, he walked away, leaving Lan totally bewildered. For a moment all he did was stare after the man, too confused to register the note in his hand, until the man had vanished from his sight.

"Lan, the note," MegaMan reminded him.

"Oh, right," Lan said. He turned his attention to the note and unfolded it, then read it.

And then he felt his blood run cold.

" . . . Lan?" MegaMan asked. "Lan, what is it? You're pale and you're shaking, what's wrong? What did the note say? Lan!"

Lan just shook his head. He brought out his PET, and held the note up to the screen so MegaMan could read it.

" _Lan Hikari - I have your parents. If you don't want any harm to come to them, you won't go to the police. Instead, I have one simple request; find the Underground NetBattlers. Do that, and your parents will be returned to you - if they comply with my demands, of course. Yours sincerely, the Scourge of Nowhere City_ ," MegaMan read the note out loud. By the time he had gotten halfway through, his voice had begun shaking, and when Lan took the note away, he saw that his brother, too, was pale. "L-Lan . . . this is . . ."

"They were kidnapped," Lan whispered. He felt like he wanted to cry, but he was in too much shock. "We were only separated from them for a few minutes, and they were . . ."

"We need to get help," MegaMan said firmly. "The police can-"

"No, didn't you read the note? We can't go to the police!" Lan cried. "This Scourge person will hurt Mom and Dad if we do that . . . But . . . I don't know what these 'Underground NetBattlers' are . . . How're we supposed to find them?"

"I don't know," MegaMan replied frantically. "As far as I'm aware, Nowhere City doesn't have an organisation by the name of . . ."

MegaMan suddenly trailed off, looking as though something had just occured to him. Lan stared at him, confused and terrified.

"Lan, get back to the hotel and wait in your room," MegaMan said abruptly. "I'll email everyone and tell them to meet us there. Okay?"

"MegaMan, what-"

"Just do it, Lan! If . . . if I'm right about this, we can save Mom and Dad!"

Lan didn't question him any further. Whatever his brother had in mind, if it would get them back their parents, he didn't care how crazy MegaMan's orders sounded.

 **oooo**

Lan got back to the hotel and his room in record time. Maybe it was just his frantic state, but the tram ride from the Cultural District to the Haven District seemed to take almost no time at all, and when he'd gotten back, MegaMan had also returned from sending out the emails to everyone's PETs.

Maylu and Tory showed up first.

"Lan, what's going on?" Maylu asked, upon bursting into his room. "MegaMan sent us an email saying there's some sort of emergency, and told us to come here!"

"Are you okay?" Tory asked. "You . . . you don't look so good."

"I . . ." Lan trailed off, glancing at MegaMan. Lan was sitting cross-legged on his bed with the PET next to him, so MegaMan could see into the room properly.

"Wait until everyone else gets here," MegaMan said.

Maylu and Tory exchanged mystified looks, but sat down - Maylu on the end of Lan's bed, and Tory in an armchair nearby.

Several minutes later, Yai came in, and also asked what was going on. MegaMan told her to wait, and she sat down next to Maylu with a huff of irritation. Time ticked by and Lan was beginning to wonder what MegaMan was even planning when Dex came in, concerned but confused - once again MegaMan told him to wait, and he sat down on the floor in front of Lan's bed.

By the time Chaud showed up, Lan's friends were getting restless and were demanding to know what was going on - Maylu had even asked where Lan's parents were, and why they weren't at this surprise meeting as well.

"What is going on here?" Chaud asked, entering the room with a puzzled frown on his face.

"Okay, Chaud's here now, can you just tell us what's going on already?" Yai snapped at MegaMan.

MegaMan, however, wasn't looking at her. "Lan," he said, "show them the note."

He did as he was told. His friends read the note he was holding, and then there was a collective gasp of horror from Maylu, Yai, and Tory. Dex just seemed stunned into silence, while Chaud had gone completely still, almost like a statue.

"Lan . . . Lan, I'm so sorry . . ." Maylu whispered, hands over her mouth.

"I asked everyone to come here because we can't go to the police," MegaMan explained. "This was the only thing I could think of. I'm sorry for being so mysterious . . ."

"It's okay, we can understand," Tory said reassuringly. "But . . . what can we do?"

"Do you want us to help you find your parents?" Dex wondered. "I mean, we'll help you with anything, you know we will . . ."

"Yeah," Yai agreed. But then she shook her head. "The only problem is, we don't know anything about this Scourge of Nowhere person. He - or she - sounds like a complete lunatic if you ask me, but if they've got your parents . . ."

"Not to mention we don't know who these Underground NetBattlers are," Maylu added.

"There's one person in this room who does," MegaMan anounced boldly.

Everyone stared at him, confused.

"What do you mean?" Tory asked, after a moment of silence.

MegaMan turned to the only person in the room who had yet to voice his opinion. "Chaud, I think it's time you told us what you've been doing these past few weeks," he said.

And now everyone turned their stares to Chaud, who suddenly looked extremely uncomfortable under their gazes. He shuffled awkwardly but met their eyes almost defiantly.

"I . . . can't," Chaud said.

Immediately the room exploded with noise.

" _What do you mean you can't_?" Maylu shouted, jumping up from her seat on Lan's bed.

"You know something about this, MegaMan says so!" Yai added angrily.

"Lan's parents' lives are at stake here, and you're still gonna play the secrecy card?" Dex demanded hotly.

"Just tell us already, what's going on with you?" Tory, far from his usual gentle self, snapped.

"Guys," MegaMan said, as Chaud began backing away looking panicked. "Guys! GUYS!"

They quietened down and turned back to MegaMan.

MegaMan blinked at them all gratefully, and then looked at Chaud. "Please," he said pleadingly. "I know you've been sworn to secrecy, but this is an emergency. Our mom and dad are in danger, and you're the only one who can help us. Please, Chaud."

Chaud swallowed. He glanced over his shoulder at the door, as if he was thinking of making an escape, but then Dex - apparently sensing his intentions - stood up threateningly.

Lan quickly intervened before things got out of hand.

"Chaud, please," he begged. "MegaMan's right. If . . . if not for my sake, then tell us for my parents' sake. You care about them as much as me and MegaMan do, right?"

It took Chaud a moment to respond, and when he did, his voice was quiet and strained, far from his usual confidence - which, Lan noted, had been more or less destroyed since that horrible argument.

"I . . . I do," Chaud mumbled. "And . . . and this _is_ an emergency, s-so . . . Okay. Yes, the people I've been working with for the past few weeks are a secret organisation known to the public as the Shades, but their real name is the Underground NetBattlers. Only a few people outside of the organisation even know about them."

"He's Foreigner," Lan quickly added, before anyone could form a response to that.

Maylu looked shocked. "You mean . . . you're one of the Shades that helped protect the network in the Navi Research Labs?" she gasped.

"Well, I didn't do a good job of it, ProtoMan almost got deleted . . ." Chaud admitted uncomfortably.

"Does that mean ProtoMan is Red Shade?" Tory asked.

"Er, y-yes. The entire reason I originally wanted to come to Nowhere City is because I was given an assigment by my superiors - to become a sort of . . . liaison for international Officials and the Underground NetBattlers," Chaud said. "But I didn't know how to get into Nowhere City, so I needed some help - and I went to Dr. Hikari, because I knew he'd been to the city once before, and he would be able to help me. But when I got there . . ."

"MegaMan had been injured, and the only place with the technology to fix him was Nowhere City, which was exactly where you needed to go," Lan finished the sentence.

Chaud looked shameful. "Yes," he said, now looking away - not daring to meet anyone's eyes for fear of reproach. "I used MegaMan's injury as an excuse to get into the city, I'll admit that freely. But I swear to all of you, I would have come along even if I hadn't been given that assignment."

"We know," Yai said shortly. "So, why did you need to keep all this a secret?"

"If you'd told us from the start, we would've understood - and it would've saved something like this from happening, too," Maylu agreed.

"That - um - that wasn't my choice," Chaud explained. "If I could have told you, I would have, but the Underground NetBattlers are well-known for not being entirely . . . trusting. Relations between different NetBattler organisations are relatively okay, but the Underground NetBattlers work from the shadows and they don't even reach out to their own country most of the time. But they're the ones who decided to reach out this time, to open their doors to just one person - and the international Officials didn't want to push their luck. They sent me, and I was made to swear not to tell anyone about this. Not even you guys. The situation's pretty delicate and it could all come tumbling down in an instant, so I had to keep it all a secret. I . . . I'm sorry, really. I hope you can all understand . . ."

"I think we finally do," Lan said, nodding. "Thanks for telling us."

Chaud looked relieved. Whether it was finally getting this off his chest after having to keep it a secret for so long, or if it was Lan's calm acceptance of this information, he seemed to be considerably calmer now than he had been for the past few weeks.

"Okay, so, the note Lan got said to find the Underground NetBattlers - which we can, because Chaud's one of them, sort of," Maylu said, getting straight back to business. "But what then?"

"All it says is that they'll be released if they comply to this Scourge person's demands," Lan said, checking the note to be sure. He was suddenly struck with a thought, and he looked at Chaud again. "Hey, do you know anything about this Scourge of Nowhere City? Have these Underground NetBattlers ever mentioned him? Or her?"

Chaud shrugged helplessly. "I don't know," he said apologetically. "It sounds familiar, but if anyone has mentioned the name, I don't remember."

But then ProtoMan broke into the conversation, sounding uncharacteristically excited.

"Chaud!" he exclaimed. "Chaud, I know why the name sounds familiar!"

Chaud brought out his PET so ProtoMan could join their conversation properly.

"Flight mentioned it once, remember?" ProtoMan went on. "When Zoet told us about Virus? She said the Scourge wouldn't plunge the city into chaos as long as they were around."

"Who're Flight and Zoet? What are you talking about a virus for?" Tory asked.

"And what's this about chaos?" Maylu added, utterly perplexed.

But Chaud had gotten too excited to register the questions. His eyes were wide and bright as he looked at Lan. "Would you be willing to come with me? I-I think I know someone who can help us with this," he said.

Lan jumped up, just barely remembering to grab his PET. "If you do, then lead the way," Lan said.

"Hey, don't forget us, we're coming to!" Maylu snapped. Yai nodded her agreement as she stood up, along with Dex and Tory.

Chaud looked at them all uncertainly. "I . . . I'm not sure if . . ." He trailed off, and shook his head. "No, no, this is an emergency, she can't . . . Okay, come on. We're going to the Jungle District. ProtoMan, where-"

"I'll give you the directions when you get there," ProtoMan said.

"Good."

 **oooo**

In contrast to Lan's frantic daze from before, the ride to the Jungle District seemed to take absolutely forever. Maybe it was because only two people in their group - Chaud and ProtoMan - knew where they were going, and were refusing to say anything more until they arrived at their destination. Or, well, it seemed that only ProtoMan knew exactly where to go, because Chaud relied almost entirely on him in order to find his way through the district.

Lan dimly recalled MegaMan telling him that ProtoMan had said Chaud was hopeless with directions. He'd found it funny at the time, but now all he could think of was getting his parents back, and he was wondering exactly who this person was that Chaud thought could help.

Maybe he was taking them directly to the Underground NetBattlers? But, no, that made no sense. Chaud had said 'someone', implying that there was only one person, and if he had been taking them to the Underground NetBattlers, he would've told them outright.

Or would he?

When they stopped at the gates of what seemed to be a school - though plants were growing practically everywhere, like the rest of the district, and it seemed to be completely abandoned to Lan's eyes - the only person who wasn't confused was Chaud himself.

"What're we doing here?" Dex asked.

"Are the Underground NetBattlers based in an abandoned school?" Tory was looking around the place with the same fascination that he and everyone else had shown when Arin had taken them to the Shining Lake.

"Abandoned?" Chaud repeated, looking confused. "What're you talking about? It's not abandoned, it just looks like this because of all the plants."

Lan had to look very carefully in order to see the well-kept building underneath all the plants.

"And no, the Underground NetBattlers are actually based in the Historical District," Chaud went on. He gestured for them to follow him through the open gates.

They did so, now quiet out of sheer curiosity. The path that led to the front lobby of the apparently-not-abandoned-school was almost like a forest path, similar to the streets of the rest of the district, although it was more overgrown. As they got closer, Lan spotted movement in some of the windows he could see, and realised that there were indeed classes going on inside.

Once they were inside the lobby, it was suddenly very clear that the place was definitely not abandoned. Unlike the outside, it was easy to see the clean floor and walls, even though there was still plenty of ivy and various plants hanging around. It was a pretty cool place, and Lan probably would've been wondering what it would be like to go to school here had he not been so confused as to why they were here to start off with.

Chaud ignored the aesthetics of the lobby and marched right up to the front desk, which was set halfway down the room. There was a young man sitting behind it, and behind him, several doors and a couple of hallways leading off to who-knew-where.

The young man noticed them coming and sat up, confused but polite.

"Hello, welcome to Jungle Secondary, how may I help you?" he greeted them.

"I need to speak with Zoet Zaliki," Chaud told him.

Zaliki?

Lan and the others looked at Chaud, waiting for an explanation - Zaliki was the last name of that crazy scientist, Arin Zaliki - but he ignored them and concentrated on the receptionist in front of him.

The young man frowned at Chaud, and then glanced at the others, clustered behind him.

"Er, may I ask why?" the receptionist asked.

Chaud seemed to take a steadying breath before responding.

"Because of reasons," he said, looking faintly embarrassed.

Okay, this was getting ridiculous. What kind of response was that, exactly? Lan was actually starting to wonder if this wasn't some sort of elaborate ploy in order to throw them off Chaud's case - maybe he thought if he did enough silly things, they'd get tired and go and look for a way to rescue Lan's parents that didn't involve these Underground NetBattlers.

But suddenly the receptionist's demeanour changed. His eyes widened and he turned a little pale, and pressed the button of a mic on the desk next to him.

"Zoet Zaliki, please make your way to reception, you have a visitor," he said, speaking clearly through the mic. "Zoet Zaliki, make your way to reception. Thank you." He took his finger off the button and looked at Chaud. "Zoet will be with you shortly."

"Thank you," Chaud replied, with a nod.

They all stepped back and waited in the middle of the lobby for whoever this Zoet Zaliki was. While everyone could recognise the last name, it was the first name that was giving Lan a few problems - he'd heard it before, and he'd seen someone by the name of Zoet, and he was pretty sure there was no one else by the same name.

Several minutes later, the very same messy-haired boy with the weird headphones who Lan had seen with Chaud a few weeks ago came through one of the doors. Upon spotting them, he raised an eyebrow, and then wandered over.

"You know," he said, "when I said you could use that code to get me outta school, I didn't mean it literally. I appreciate the effort, though."

"Uh, that's not why I used the code," Chaud corrected him, somewhat awkwardly. He glanced at Lan, Maylu, Yai, Dex and Tory. "Um, these are-"

"Oh, wait, these are the assholes that made you so miserable, ain't they?" the messy-haired boy realised. He didn't seem too concerned and just regarded them with half-closed eyes that seemed permanently tired. "What, they yelling at you again? Want me to beat 'em up for you? I can take 'em. Even the chubby one."

"What?" Dex said, blinking in surprise.

"No, no, I don't need you to beat anyone up," Chaud quickly told the messy-haired boy. "Zoet, there's trouble, something really bad's happened and . . . I don't think we should talk about this here, come on."

With a backward glance at the receptionist, who was watching them curiously, Chaud led the group outside and through the school gates. He didn't stop until they had reached a place that he deemed good enough to talk in without anyone being able to listen in on their conversation.

Zoet crossed his arms and looked at Chaud for an explanation.

"Lan's parents have been kidnapped," Chaud explained in rush. "He got a note, and it says that he needs to find the Underground NetBattlers or he won't get them back."

"Okay. And this is my problem how?"

For a moment, Lan was utterly stunned at the lack of care. Most people would have been shocked or even a little concerned, but Zoet didn't appear to care at all. He didn't even uncross his arms or change his bored expression. But Chaud didn't seem too bothered about this lack of reaction.

"The person who sent the note called themself the Scourge of Nowhere City," he said.

Zoet suddenly snapped something that would have horrified Lan's mom.

"I knew that asshole would come back," he snarled, ignoring the shocked looks he was getting from everyone but Chaud, who was apparently used to this. "So he's gone and kidnapped a couple of people, huh? Any idea why?"

"No," Chaud replied, shaking his head. "All the note said was that the Underground NetBattlers have to comply to their - his - demands. I . . . I had to tell Lan and everyone about the Underground NetBattlers. I'm sorry."

Zoet didn't seem too concerned with this. "Doesn't matter, it's too late to worry about secrecy anyway," he said. "We'll take the note to Kris and the others, see what they make of it. I suppose we'll have to take this bunch of idiots with us too, or else they might end up getting their asses kidnapped, and then this hostage situation'll just get even worse."

"Got it," Chaud said.

Lan was surprised to see Chaud taking orders from someone else - he'd thought that Chaud only took orders from his superiors in the Official NetBattlers, but apparently here, in Nowhere City, he took orders from a bad-tempered boy with headphones.

"Come on, get moving, all of you," Zoet ordered, spinning on his heel and taking the lead back to the Jungle Station.

Lan caught up to Chaud as they went through the district.

"Chaud, are you sure about this?" he asked quietly, hoping that Zoet wouldn't hear him.

"Of course," Chaud replied. "Zoet might be bad-tempered, but she's not that mean, and she knows what to do. If I ask for help, she'll help me."

"Well, if you s- wait." Lan's step faltered briefly. "'She'? Zoet . . . Zoet's a _girl_?"

Chaud looked at him, confused. "Um," he said, "yes? Couldn't you tell?"

"No!" Lan exclaimed. "He - she, whatever - looks like a dude!"

"Be fair, Chaud, you thought Zoet was a boy when you first met her, too . . ." ProtoMan spoke up.

"Shut up," Chaud muttered, scowling. There was a red tint to his cheeks.

"Well, I guess that explains why you got confused when I asked you about the guy I saw you with," Lan mused, turning his gaze to Zoet, who was leading them at a brisk pace. "Zoet's not a guy at all."

"Uh, no, she's not."

"Call me a boy again and I'll carve out your insides," Zoet called back to them, speaking casually as though she was just discussing the weather.

"She doesn't mean it," Chaud said to Lan.

"Yes I do," Zoet immediately contradicted him.

Lan wondered exactly how Chaud managed to function properly in the presence of someone so casually terrifying.

 **OOOOOO**

Plot happens, and Lan and the others finally meet Zoet! And Lan discovers that Zoet is actually a girl, hence why Chaud was confused when he asked him about Zoet before.

So yeah, this is the endgame for the entire story - Dr. Hikari and Haruka end up getting kidnapped by the Scourge of Nowhere City, who I have one more shocking revelation to tell you guys about, and trust me it is a really, really good one. But you'll have to wait until next chapter to find out what it is, because damn do I really not wanna give you guys spoilers, it is the best plot twist I've ever come up with. I think.

But anyway, next chapter we'll have all of our main canon characters in the Underground NetBattlers' HQ. I'll also be continuing with Lan's POV when necessary, but I did consider having next chapter in Chaud's POV again.

Which I've decided not to do since the scenes I have in mind, I wanna write from Lan's POV - I wanna write his reaction to the interactions between Chaud and Zoet.

Since I don't have much to say and I'm sure you guys just wanna get to reading the next chapter, I'll end this off here.

Read and review!


	24. Chapter 24 - A Secret worth Keeping

In this chapter, lots of things happen, but I'm eager to get towards the plot twist I mentioned in the previous AN because dear god do I wanna write it so badly.

This'll continue to be in Lan's POV until I decide it doesn't have to be, which'll probably end up being when stuff happens - which I won't spoil, which also makes it difficult to tell you when I'm switching POVs, but the good news is that with all these sudden POV switches, Lan may actually end up being a main character of this weird-ass fic after all.

Not as, well, 'main' as Chaud is (since he's featured in almost every single chapter even when it's not his POV), but definitely a good secondary character.

But yeah things're happening and I'm just gonna get right into this, because there's nothing else I can say without giving anything away.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Zoet and Chaud led them all the way to the Historical District, where Chaud had said the Underground NetBattlers were based. Thoroughly confused and highly freaking out (because Lan, in all the excitement, hadn't forgotten the reason for all of this), the group followed the two through the district.

They entered what looked like an antique shop. A woman reading a magazine glanced up as they all came in, and her eyes flickered from Zoet and Chaud - who she clearly recognised - to Lan and his friends.

"Nice weather we're having today, huh?" the woman asked warily.

There was no weather. They were underground. What was she talking about?

But apparently this was another 'code', as Zoet replied to her question as if this was a normal thing to ask in an underground city.

"Yes, but I always carry an umbrella," Zoet said.

The woman once again glanced at Lan and the others, but she didn't question their presence. She reached under her desk and pressed something - Lan just about heard a very quiet click - and went back to reading her magazine as if nothing weird had happened.

This time it was Chaud who led them, right through to a back room that was cluttered and kind of cramped. A storage room. There was something strange about it, though, because one entire wall was completely bare.

"Follow me, and don't think about it," Chaud advised them.

Then he shocked them by walking at the wall. Lan almost cried out - he was gonna walk right into it! - but then he lost his voice when Chaud just passed right through the wall with the barest ripple of electric-blue outlining his shape.

Zoet looked at them. "You lot next," she said.

Maylu and the others looked too freaked out to go anywhere near the wall. Lan, however, took a deep breath and went straight up to the wall. Here he hesitated, because while Chaud had shown them it was possible to go through, it still looked exactly like a solid wall and he didn't want to walk right into it. Man, no wonder Chaud had said not to think about it.

"Go on, Lan," MegaMan gently encouraged him. "Chaud did it - so can you."

"Right," Lan said, steeling his courage.

He strode forward, not giving himself time to hesitate or even think about it, and walked right through the wall. It turned out the wall wasn't even solid at all, it just looked solid, and when he opened his eyes after closing them reflexively, he found himself in a grey corridor on the other side.

Chaud was waiting for him.

"It's a bit freaky at first, but you get used to it," he told Lan, smiling slightly.

"I don't wanna get used to it," Lan said truthfully. Chaud just shrugged. "Where are we?"

Chaud answered just as Maylu came through, eyes screwed up tight against the fact that she walking through a wall.

"The Underground NetBattlers' HQ," Chaud replied. "It's kind of complicated and I still don't know my way around - most operatives don't - but we have maps, don't worry."

"Not that you'd be able to find your way around even if it wasn't complicated," ProtoMan muttered. "Couldn't find your way out of a paper bag."

"Oi," Chaud said, though he looked amused.

Next, Yai came through, squealing a little while she ran. Obviously she'd needed a run-up before she could force herself to go through the wall. Tory came next, stiff-legged and wide-eyed, as though determined to see what it was like to walk through a wall that wasn't there, and then came Dex, who came halfway through and freaked out so much that Zoet got annoyed and shoved him the rest of the way.

When Zoet came through, she exchanged a glance with Chaud, and took the lead once again. She also whipped out a strange orange-and-black PET, but it looked weird to Lan, like it was backwards somehow. It looked like she was reading a map off it and there was a female voice, very bright and cheerful (the complete opposite of Zoet's abrupt irritated tone), telling her where to go.

Lan assumed that was Flight. No human would ever have a weird name like that (Zoet notwithstanding), and his assumption turned out to be correct a moment later when Zoet said the name of the Navi inside her PET. And then she mentioned something about a virus again.

"I have no idea where it is," the Navi, Flight, replied. "Probably off doing researchy stuff, who knows?"

"Virus doesn't do that, it has access to the entire internet from the PET," Zoet said. "Just point me towards the command centre, and once we're there, go and find it. We might need it."

"You got it!"

Five minutes later, walking through the halls of this HQ place, Lan could certainly see why the people who worked here needed maps to get around. There were so many twists and turns that he eventually stopped trying to remember exactly where they were going and just hoped that this Flight Navi and ProtoMan could lead them to the command centre.

They found a lift eventually and Lan - and his friends - was able to rest his tired feet. Now he could see why that walk to the Shining Lake hadn't bothered Chaud. If he could walk all this way every single day, of course a little trek like that wouldn't matter to him.

But the lift ride didn't last very long and pretty soon they were walking through even more twisting and turning hallways and corridors, passing by so many people that Lan wondered whether or not the entire city was in on this. He did spot a few people walking around in those black full-body suit things that the Shades wore, which at least confirmed what Chaud had told them - the Shades and the Underground NetBattlers were one and the same.

And then finally they reached what had to be the command centre.

The double-doors in front of them were different and bigger than the other doors they'd passed on the way here, and Zoet held up her PET to a scanner on one side of the doors and waited for a confirmation beep. The doors opened a moment later, and she led them inside.

The command centre was a large, circular room. Around the edges of the room were various monitors where people sat, one or two wearing the full-body suits (though without the helmets, strangely enough), all talking or typing away. On the opposite side of the room, taking up quite a bit of wall, was a curved window that overlooked the entire Historical District. On the ceiling was a strange dome with blue panels that flashed occasionally.

And in the middle of the room was a raised platform, where three people stood - or, well, two people stood, and a third sat in a red and black chair that Lan realised with a jolt was very similar to the hovering wheelchair MegaMan used.

As the group entered the room, the person in the red and black wheelchair looked over her shoulder. At first she smiled upon seeing Zoet and Chaud, but then the smile dropped off her face when she spotted Lan and the others. She turned her wheelchair around.

"Zoet," she greeted them cooly. "Chaud. I hope you have a good explanation for this."

One of the other two people on the platform turned around at the sound of Zoet's name, revealing her to be none other than Dr. Arin Zaliki. As Lan and his friends gaped in shock, Arin's expression split into a wild grin, a contrast to the woman in the wheelchair's grim face. The third person on the platform, a stern-faced man with short hair, merely glanced over his shoulder unconcernedly before going back to what he was doing before.

"Dr. Yuichiro Hikari and his wife Haruka Hikari have been kidnapped by the Scourge of Nowhere City," Zoet announced, in a voice that rang across the room.

Now everyone was paying attention, even the short-haired man.

The woman in the wheelchair was looking utterly shocked, and she glanced from Zoet to Lan and back again. "Are you sure?" she demanded. "What proof do you have?"

Zoet glanced at Lan, clearly inviting him to come forward.

"U-um," Lan said, stepping forward. He held out the note he'd gotten. "I . . . got this from . . . f-from a man."

"Arin," the woman in the wheelchair said quietly.

Arin came forward, walking down the ramp of the platform to Lan. She took the offered note and read it out loud.

"Well, shit," a man with a blue bandana said when she'd finished. "Never thought we'd hear from that guy again."

The woman in the wheelchair didn't spare him a glance. "If he's back, I'm afraid we have bigger problems than two kidnapped people," she said, not unkindly. "You - kid with the headband - you're Lan Hikari? Their son?"

"Y-yeah," Lan stammered. He got the feeling that he was most likely talking to the leader of the Underground NetBattlers, judging by how she was taking charge of the situation. That knowledge made him a little nervous.

"My name is Kris," the woman said. She gestured to Arin, then the short-haired man, and then the man with the bandana. "You already know Arin, I assume. This is Gunter, and that there is Roahm. We, as you may have guessed, are the leaders of the Underground NetBattlers."

"Kris is the supreme leader," Arin added.

"Just an honorary title," Kris said. It sounded like she'd said this a million times before and didn't bother to react anymore.

"Still supreme."

"Alright, before we get sidetracked, what do we do now?" Gunter broke in. "The Scourge is bound to try another attack, and he's had four years to prepare - there's no telling what damage he could do this time."

"Evacuate the city as fast as possible," Kris ordered, turning around again. "One district at a time, keep it contained and try not to have everyone panic. Gunter, you're in charge of evacuation - Roahm, help as much as you can. Recall Woodchip from his mission, you might need his help, and tell Mythril to be ready in case there's an attack on the marina."

"Consider it done," Gunter said, nodding.

"On it!" Roahm called, waving. He pulled out a PET and began tapping commands into it.

Kris turned to Arin next. "You're our tech expert, get Jackal onto the net and take however many independent Navis we can spare, try and find where the Scourge will strike first and negate it as quickly as possible."

"We'll figure it out," Arin said. She took out her PET. "Yo, Jackal, where's Korock and the rest of them?"

But Lan, who had remained silent while Kris had started issuing orders, spoke up as boldly as he dared.

"What about my parents?" he demanded loudly.

Kris, about to give orders to the other people in the room, turned around again and looked at him silently. The other three leaders and everyone else also watched him - he noticed that Arin, Gunter and Roahm seemed mildly curious while the other people were wide-eyed.

"Look, Lan Hikari, I'm sorry," Kris said. "Your parents will have to wait. We have an entire city to think about, we can't worry about the safety of two people against the lives of millions."

"But-" Lan began.

Just then, something fizzed onto the curved window overlooking the city. It was a square transmission screen, and it had appeared out of absolutely nowhere with no warning whatsoever, surprising the people around the edge of the room. They all started tapping frantically, trying to figure out what was going on, while Kris swung around again and stared at the fizzing screen on the window.

"What in the hell's name is going on now?" Kris hissed.

"Kris!" one of the people around the edge of the room called. "We're receiving a transmission from . . . well, I don't know. The source is blocked but they're still contacting us somehow."

"Can you trace it?" Kris demanded.

Before the guy could answer, there was a high-pitched crackle and abruptly, the fizzing screen cleared to show the face of a smiling man with wild brown hair and dark, almost soulless eyes. He looked strangely familiar, but Lan knew he'd never seen someone like that before, not even in all of his previous adventures with his brother.

"There's no need for that," the man with the soulless eyes said. Even his voice was practically soulless - Lan involuntarily shivered. "I've made sure this transmission is untraceable, through the use of a very beautiful creation of mine. Arin, hello there, I'm sure you remember Vice, don't you?"

"Unfortunately," Arin said flatly. She sounded so much like Zoet just then that Lan almost looked at Zoet herself as if she had spoken.

"And I see little Lan Netto Hikari in the background there," the man went on, looking directly into Lan's eyes.

Lan couldn't suppress a squeak of terror. This man was unlike anything he'd ever seen.

"So you did get my note after all," the man said, nodding. "Congratulations on finding the Underground NetBattlers in time, although I'm sure you had help - is that Eugene Chaud Blaze I see? Heir to the IPC fortune?"

Chaud didn't respond. He - like Lan and the other Electopian kids - may not have had any experience with this soulless man, but no doubt he too could feel the unnatural fear of this man creeping into his very soul.

"You've become an operative of this nice little organisation, haven't you?" the man asked, as if he was making casual conversation. "How nice for you. But this isn't why I've called, though it is enjoyable to catch up with old friends - ah, I see Zoet there. Did you enjoy your little birthday present four years ago? I almost deleted one of your Navis, didn't I?"

Zoet told him to go do something very nasty.

"There's no need for that," the soulless man said calmly. "Before I get too into this reunion, I'd like to show you all something. I'm sure you've heard that I have Dr. Hikari and his wife, and I'm sure you've decided that the city is your priority at the moment. Unfortunately for you, the city and the boy's parents share the same fate."

As he spoke, his image disappeared, and was replaced with an image of two people tied up in a small, dirty, and dark room.

"Dad!" Lan cried.

"Mom!" MegaMan exclaimed at the same time.

The image was suddenly gone, and the soulless-eyed man came back on. "Yes, indeed, they're quite safe here in my home," he said. "But they won't be for long, I'm afraid to say."

"In your note, you said that you'd let his parents go if he found us," Kris said, her voice as cold as winter ice. "Well, he did what you told him to. Now let them go."

"I'm afraid you're missing one little detail - that I'd let them go only if you comply to my demands," the man reminded her. "By the way, how are you doing nowadays, Kris? I'm sorry the building I dropped on you had to cripple you like this. You were such a good field agent, too."

"Get to the fucking point, you lunatic," Kris barked.

The soulless man bowed his head mockingly. "But of course," he practically purred. "My demands are simple. In six hours, bombs that I have placed around the city will detonate and destroy the supports holding the city up, and the roof will come down on everyone's heads. Thousands, if not millions, will die - and more will die in the days that follow, including Lan Hikari's parents, who I have taken as extra insurance that you will not attack my home while I await your reply."

"Stop stalling and tell us what you want," Arin ordered. She had never sounded less like herself. Gone was the cheerful and eccentric personality, to be replaced with a formidable woman who took no prisoners.

"Dear sister, do you have to be so impatient?" the soulless man sighed.

"What," Zoet said.

Arin had gone very still.

"But alas, I'm afraid that my time does indeed grow short," the man said. "Very well - all I ask is that you hand over the VR system, and if you do, instead of giving you six hours to evacuate the city, I will give you two days - forty-two hours. I will contact you the moment your first six hours are up so that I may hear your response."

Without giving anyone a chance to respond, he cut off the transmission, leaving the screen on the window fizzling once again. A moment later, the fizzing screen cut off as well, and the window was back to being just a window.

There was utter silence in the command centre.

No one wanted to be the first to break it, yet everyone was dying to say something - Lan in particular just wanted to wail like a little kid. His parents were in the hands of that . . . that unnatural man.

It was Zoet who broke the silence.

"Mom," she said, very calmly. Lan got the feeling that she was extremely dangerous right now. "What did he mean by 'dear sister'."

Arin turned around and faced her daughter. She looked wary and ready to bolt, and Lan honestly couldn't blame her. He'd known Zoet for all of an hour, and she was probably the second-scariest person he'd ever met, the first being that soulless man just now.

"He's most commonly known by his public name of the Scourge of Nowhere City," Arin said quietly, "but very few know him by his real name - Levi Zaliki, my younger brother . . . and your uncle."

"When were you planning on telling me that the person responsible for Virus being a mass of corrupted Navi data is my uncle."

"I . . . was hoping never," Arin admitted. "By the time you were born, he'd already vanished, and when he tried to launch that attack on Nowhere City four years ago . . . I saw no reason to cause you any grief by bringing him up, or telling you that he's your uncle."

Zoet stared at her mother for what seemed like an eternity.

And then, just as Arin took a step towards her, she spun on her heel and marched out of the room without a backward glance. Arin watched her go, a pained expression on her face.

Chaud cast a scared glance at Arin and went after Zoet.

" . . . Arin," Kris said quietly. "Do you want to deal with this now, or . . .?"

"She . . . she'll come around . . ." Arin said shakily. "I hope, anyway . . . She's never been this angry before. Not at me." She stood there for a moment, and then shook herself and turned to her leader. "Well, we know what he wants. Do we give it to him?"

"If it had just been the lives of two people, I would have said no," Kris replied, with a quick glance at Lan. "But now that he's basically holding the entire city hostage . . . we have no choice. There's no telling what damage he could do with the VR system, but those bombs he planted around the city are certain to cause chaos."

"Two days isn't nearly enough time to evacuate the entire city," Gunter said. "There's too many people, it'd take weeks to get everyone out."

"Well, we can't call him back to demand more time," Kris said briskly. "We'll have to make do. Gunter, start evacuation, now. Get as many people out as possible, use all entrances and any secret entrances you can get to if necessary. We'll have to scrap doing this by district. Roahm, change of plans, you'll be assisting Arin instead. Arin, try and figure out where he's got these bombs, and keep an eye on the networks - just because he's attacking the real world doesn't mean he won't go after the cyberworld as well. I'll try and coordinate the police and security teams as much as I can. We're going to need a lot more people than we currently have . . ."

As Kris started issuing orders to the other people in the room, who all rushed around to obey, Arin plodded down the platform's ramp and paused in front of Lan and his friends.

"You probably want to find the little one, right?" she asked heavily. "Chaud, I mean. Hey, Jackal, give these kids directions, would you?"

" . . . Of course," Jackal replied quietly. "Arin-"

"She'll come around," Arin said. She didn't look like she believed it.

 **oooo**

Arin was apparently psychic, because somehow she knew exactly where Chaud - and most likely her daughter - was in this complicated base. The directions that Jackal downloaded into Lan's PET took them through the different halls, now suddenly bustling with panicked energy. They kept to the side as much as possible to allow people more space, and made their way to a lift that stopped at every single floor of the base before they finally got to where they needed to go.

A lot more twisty hallways later, they reached a door that Jackal had marked in his directions as their destination. It opened to a small room that looked like some sort of common room, though it was weird because there was a massive monitor built onto the opposite side of the room, and a long table with three computers in front of the monitor.

ProtoMan and a golden-coloured Navi with wings attached to her arms - who Lan assumed to be Flight - were looking at Zoet and Chaud from the monitor. Zoet was sitting with her back to the door at the long table, while Chaud was hovering a few feet behind her uncertainly.

Chaud glanced over his shoulder when Lan, Maylu, Yai, Dex and Tory came in.

"How did you . . . ?" Chaud wondered.

"Arin gave us directions," Lan replied. He glanced at Zoet. "Is . . . is she okay?"

"Probably not," Chaud said, shaking his head a little. "What she told me about Virus, it was pretty horrible, and to find out the guy responsible for it is her uncle . . ."

"What is this virus, anyway?" Maylu asked. "She mentioned it once or twice, but why would anyone want a virus inside their PET?"

"Oh, no, Virus isn't an actual virus - it's a NetNavi," Chaud explained. "A lot of its data is actually virus data, so it's half-Navi, half-virus."

"How-"

"It isn't my story to tell," Chaud interrupted.

"She's your friend, right?" Tory asked, glancing at Zoet. "Aren't you . . . aren't you gonna try and comfort her or something? Like maybe give her a hug, she looks like she needs one."

Chaud shook his head. "I'm kind of afraid to," he admitted. "She, uh . . . she doesn't react well to being touched."

"What do you mean?" Lan frowned, eyebrows furrowed.

"Put it this way," Chaud said. "The first time it came up, she beat a man senseless and then chucked him through a window. Multiple times."

Oh. Well. Okay.

Zoet was definitely terrifying. That was one thing Lan was certain of.

"But . . . you're right," Chaud mumbled, looking back at Zoet. "I probably should say something . . ."

Lan almost tried to hold him back when he went over to her. If she could beat someone up who was probably twice her size _and_ throw him through a window, then she could probably break Chaud in two - but considering the fact that he'd been hanging around her for a while now, and Zoet had had every opportunity to beat Chaud up yet she obviously didn't, maybe he was safe with her. Certainly safer than he'd been with Lan.

No. No, he couldn't dwell on that right now. He had bigger problems.

"Zoet?" Chaud tentatively asked.

Zoet didn't reply.

Chaud, with an uncertain glance at the two Navis on the monitor, tried again. "It's not her fault, you know," he said. "She . . . she was just trying to protect you."

"From what."

That tone was dangerously flat and Lan could just hear alarm bells screaming 'get away, very dangerous, get away _now_ '.

"From this," Chaud replied. He was trying to sound confident but evidently he was just as terrified of her as Lan was. "She cares, you know, that's why she didn't tell you - and she's right anyway, there was no need to cause you any grief with this."

"Too bad. I found out anyway."

"But . . . she still cared enough to try," Chaud said, now looking at the floor with an expression of such sadness that Lan had to wonder exactly how personal this was for him as well. "That's . . . that's a lot more than some parents would do."

Finally, Zoet looked up. She didn't seem to have changed expression at all since finding out that the Scourge of Nowhere City was her uncle, but as she lifted her head and looked at Chaud, her expression seemed to soften a little.

" . . . Yeah," she said eventually. "I guess it is."

" . . . Are you okay now?"

Zoet blinked slowly, and then shrugged. "I'm still pissed - who wouldn't be? - but I get why she didn't tell me. I don't hate her, you know. I'll just ignore her for a bit and then we'll be alright."

That didn't sound okay to Lan - ignoring someone wasn't exactly a good way to deal with anything, let alone something as bad as this - but apparently this was fine for Chaud, who looked relieved and nodded his agreement.

"Good," he said. "So, what'll happen now?"

"That lunatic's after the VR system, which we shouldn't give him, but since we have no choice . . ." Zoet huffed, and stood up, stretching her arms above her head. "Well, we'll have to prepare for the worst. Last time it was viruses all over the city's networks, and that did enough damage on its own, but if he gets the VR system, he can bring viruses into the real world."

"This VR system thing can do that?" Yai gasped.

Zoet glanced at Lan and the others as if she hadn't realised they were there. "Yeah, it can do that," she replied shortly. "My mom created it, and she also made Virtue to manage the system."

"You never told me that," Chaud commented.

"You never asked." Zoet rolled her eyes. "But since the Scourge is after the VR system, he'll probably want to use the full potential of the system. It normally only covers the training room, but it's powerful enough to cover an entire district if necessary. I'm willing to bet all the coin I have that he's figured out a way to force the VR system into covering the entire city rather than just a single district, though."

"What about those bombs he mentioned?" Maylu asked.

"Did Kris give out an evacuation order?"

"Yeah."

"Then at least we can get some people out safely," Zoet said. "I'm pretty sure the order'll come through to start searching for the bombs, though."

As if her words had summoned it, a transmission screen appeared on the monitor. Flight and ProtoMan moved aside to make room for it between them, and everyone turned their attention toward it as Kris came on.

"Attention all operatives," she said. "Attention. We have an emergency. The Scourge of Nowhere City is back. I repeat, the Scourge has returned. He has contacted us and has issued his demands - he wants the VR system. If we don't give it to him in six hours, he will detonate bombs set all over the city's supports and kill every last man, woman and child within the city. If we do give him the VR system, he will give us forty-two hours instead of six.

"Gunter and I are heading evacuation efforts. Arin and Roahm are in charge of finding and defusing the bombs, and protecting the networks and districts. You will receive an email on your PETs shortly, giving you your orders. We plan to hand over the VR system when the Scourge next contacts us, so be prepared to fight viruses in the real world as well. Good luck."

The transmission fizzed, and then cut off.

"There you go," Zoet said.

"Okay, so, what do we do now?" Maylu asked her.

Zoet looked at her, an eyebrow raised. "What's this 'we' business?" she demanded.

"Er, well, you said-"

"When I said 'we', I was referring to myself and that dumb chicken nugget over there," Zoet told her, gesturing to Chaud, who sighed. "You lot are even dumber than _he_ is, and you'll get in the way, so stay here and don't come out of this room. Virus, there you are. We've got trouble. Big trouble."

An entirely new Navi had just materialised on the monitor, and Maylu uttered a soft scream when it did. Lan couldn't blame her - it was terrifying. It was pale and stick-thin, with long clawed fingers and completely blank NaviMarks. The most prominent feature was the fact that it had absolutely no face whatsoever.

"I heard," it said, and Lan couldn't hold back a whimper. Its voice was montone and genderless, further adding to the creepiness of its appearance. "So, the Scourge is back, and this time it is worse. I had no wish to see him ever again."

"He's also Zoet's uncle, apparently," Flight informed it.

The faceless Navi turned its head towards her silently. This didn't seem to freak out Flight as much as it did Lan and his friends.

" . . . Is he now," it said eventually. No change to its voice. What the hell was wrong with this Navi?

It did seem vaguely familiar though. Lan wracked his brains, trying to figure out why, and then it hit him - Vital Shade. And Acrobat. Chaud was Foreigner, and his partner then had been a Shade with the codename Acrobat. Since Chaud was apparently partners with Zoet, that made her Acrobat, and if Flight hadn't been with them back during the Inky incident, then that meant it was this faceless Navi who had been with them instead.

But no one was calling it Vital Shade. They were calling it . . . Virus?

So the Shades weren't the only ones to have codenames, the Navis also got them. Well, it made sense, now that he thought about it - it'd be a pretty huge giveaway if the Navis weren't also hiding their identities.

Chaud had said that Virus was, well, part virus. Maybe that was what was wrong with it.

"Yeah, his real name's Levi Zaliki," Zoet told it. "He's insane. And not the type of insane we're used to."

"That is common knowledge," Virus said. "Though I did not know he is your uncle."

"Yeah. Anyway, me and the brat should be getting an email right about-"

Her PET beeped.

"There we go," Zoet said. "I am magic."

"No you're not," Flight said.

"Shut up."

Zoet took out her PET and opened up the email. She read it, and then nodded and turned to Chaud, who had just received an email as well and was reading his.

"Apparently I'm on bomb-duty," Zoet said. "You?"

"I have absolutely no idea. I can't read it."

ProtoMan sighed. "Hold on a moment," he told Chaud, and then he pulled up a screen and tapped away on it. " . . . There. Try it now."

Chaud looked at his PET again. "Thank you. I got the same as you - and we need to report to Arin for proper orders." He glanced up at Zoet. "Is . . . that gonna be okay?"

"I'm not gonna send my own mother to hospital, if that's what you're worried about."

"Hey!" Lan interrupted them loudly. "What about us? We can't just sit here doing nothing!"

"Too bad, 'cus that's what you're gonna do," Zoet snapped. She jacked her Navis out of the monitor, strode past Lan and his friends, and went out of the room.

They turned to Chaud next, who sighed. "Look, I don't have the authority to let you help out here," he told them. "It's bad enough that we had to bring you to HQ, but letting you help with the bombs is gonna be pushing it."

"Pushing it?" Yai echoed, offended. "That Kris lady said they need more people! We're right here, we can help!"

"It's not my decision," Chaud said. "Just stay here, okay?"

"And what about my parents?" Lan demanded. "What am I supposed to do about them?"

"I know it's hard to believe," Chaud sighed, "but they're actually safer where they are right now. The Scourge won't hurt them as long as he believes that there's a chance the Underground NetBattlers won't give him the VR system if he doesn't hold up his end of the deal."

"You're right, that is hard to believe," Lan muttered.

"Just stay here," Chaud repeated. "Please."

He jacked ProtoMan out of the monitor and followed Zoet.

 **OOOOOO**

I did consider sticking on a brief scene with Chaud and Zoet getting their orders from Arin, but I cut it out on account of the fact that it was like, what, maybe fifteen lines of sheer awkwardness.

But the basic gist of that scene was that our favourite idiots get assigned to the Gate District, and Virus is their bomb-killer while ProtoMan and Flight act as its bodyguards. Zoet and Chaud's roles are to get their Navis to any bombs they can find.

Anyway, next chapter we'll be ignoring the search for the bombs - I never planned on actually writing that out, but I'll briefly describe it in the narration (since we're going right back to Chaud's POV for convenience's sake) before heading right into the final climax of the entire story.

Guess what's gonna happen when the Scourge gets his hands on the VR system!

And who liked my plot twist there? The thing with the Scourge being Zoet's uncle was the plot twist I kept talking about, and dear god do I love it. I had a bit of trouble giving this guy a name at first, I was torn between just leaving him nameless (aside from the Scourge of Nowhere City) and calling him something like Seth Zaliki. But then I decided to call him Levi because it just sounded better somehow.

He's also insane in the worst sense of the word.

Read and review!


	25. Chapter 25 - New Mission

Depending on how much content I can write, I may end up with more than thirty chapters . . . Man, I never thought the climax would take up so many chapters. I thought maybe four at best, but apparently not?

I'm a fucking idiot.

Yeah anyway, time to get on with the story, we need to get back to our favourite egghead's POV because why the hell not. Also be prepared for just a slight bit of awkwardness between mother and daughter.

They're as crazy as each other but in different ways.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

Just under a third of the operatives from the Underground NetBattlers were selected for bomb-duty - searching and disabling the bombs as quickly as possible - and most of them were special operatives like Zoet (and technically Chaud). They were ordered not to alert the public to the danger, as that would cause unimaginable chaos and they were trying to prevent people from dying.

Zoet and Chaud, along with several other operatives, were assigned to the Gate District.

Since Chaud had never been near the supports before, it fell largely to Zoet to get them where they needed to go. They could get near the supports via the walkways above their heads, but unless they were builders, they couldn't get any further unauthorised. So they had to climb.

The height kind of made Chaud dizzy halfway up - he accidentally looked down after being told not to and promptly freaked out because _dear god_ was this cavern really high - so he was forced to wait anxiously on the walkways while Zoet took ProtoMan up in her battle suit.

ProtoMan and Flight were to act as Virus's bodyguards, since it was the only one guaranteed to be able to defuse a bomb with any accuracy (due to its hacker-level skills).

But even after almost the full time they had been given, the two of them had yet to find more than two bombs. The Scourge had hidden them really well, but Zoet and Chaud comforted themselves with the knowledge that they weren't the only ones working on the Gate District.

It turned out their comfort was unfounded, because only three other bombs had been found. No one knew how many bombs in total there were, and Dekka - a special operative who only had one Navi but frequently worked with the independent Navis - told them to assume that there were more than just five. The supports, she explained to Chaud when he asked, were among some of the most complex machinery in the city, and it would take more than five bombs to break them down completely.

Dekka ordered them to continue searching, but they had just barely begun again when ProtoMan informed Chaud that they'd just received an email.

"It's from Kris, she sent it to every single operative currently active," he reported. "Shall I read it?"

Zoet had also gotten one, but she glanced at Chaud and nodded when ProtoMan asked his question.

"Go ahead," Chaud said.

" _Attention all Underground NetBattlers - the Scourge has contacted us once again and we have handed over the VR system. Be prepared for any damage he may cause with it, as he can easily bring viruses into the real world. We now have forty-two hours to evacuate the city and find the bombs. I don't need to tell you to hurry. Kris Landy, First Leader,_ " ProtoMan read. He looked up from the email with a worried frown. "With forty-two hours, we may be able to find all of the bombs, but . . ."

"The viruses make things more difficult," Chaud finished. "They can interfere with the search, or just destroy the city on their own."

"Hey, I just got another email," Zoet said suddenly. She read it, and then made an interested sound. "Huh."

"What is it?" Chaud asked her. But then he got a second email as well.

"I'll read this one too," ProtoMan offered. " _Zoet and Chaud, this email has been sent to you two exclusively. I'm pulling you off the bomb-search. Come back to HQ as quickly as possible and come straight to the command centre. Kris Landy, First Leader._ "

"New orders?" Chaud guessed.

"That or we're gonna be shunted onto evacuation-duty," Zoet said. "Come on, we'd better get going, we can't waste a second."

They pretty much ran the entire way there. People being evacuated saw them coming and jumped out of the way, which was handy, but what wasn't handy was the fact that the trams had been shut down and there were people coming through the tunnels. It was the only way to get people from district-to-district, but they were kind of in a hurry.

"Wouldn't it be better to use the trams to evacuate people?" Chaud wondered, as he and Zoet stood to one side to allow a large group of people to pass.

"Trams would get crowded," Zoet replied. "Besides, you really want a pile-up in a place like this? The only transports that are running are the buses, and that's only because people in the back of the districts would have a really hard time getting to the tram stations in order to evacuate."

"Ah, okay."

When they reached HQ, they were both out of breath - no amount of walking through the maze of hallways every day could prepare anyone for running what would have been an hour's ride on a tram or something - and were forced to pause until they were no longer gasping. Then they started running again (thankfully HQ was mostly empty, due to everyone being out on bomb-duty or evacuation-duty) and arrived at the command centre in record time.

They took off their helmets and went inside.

Kris was on the platform with her back to them, but when the doors opened, she looked over her shoulder - and upon seeing it was them, she turned around to greet them as they came up the platform ramp. Arin was standing a few feet away, pretending not to pay attention (Chaud remembered how awkward it had been when she'd given them their orders; Zoet had looked everywhere but her mother), and Roahm was talking to someone on his PET, most likely giving out more orders. Gunter wasn't in the room, but he was most likely out in the city, leading the evacuation.

"Good, you're here," Kris said as soon as Zoet and Chaud reached her. "I have new orders for you. I'm not going to lie to either of you, this will be extremely dangerous, and I'll understand if you refuse to do this - but I have to tell you now, you two are the best operatives we have for this job."

"Quit stalling and tell us what it is already, and then we'll make a decision," Zoet almost snapped, but since it was Kris she just kept her tone mildly irritated instead.

Kris nodded. "I want you two to figure out where the Scourge is," she said. "He's based somewhere in the city, but since we couldn't trace either of his transmissions, we have absolutely no idea where - but thanks to the efforts of the combined efforts of my security team and the independent Navis we have in our employ, we've ruled out the districts as potential hiding places. And that leaves the outskirts of the city, the unexplored and forgotten caverns, which . . ."

"Which we can only get to via the unused tram tunnels or through natural tunnels," Zoet completed the thought.

Kris nodded. "Zoet, you're probably the best person in the Underground NetBattlers - maybe even the entire city - to explore the tunnels. You can find anything there. Arin told me about how you were the one to rediscover the lost Shining Lake, and the Limestone Depths."

"Okay, fine, so you want me to go exploring," Zoet said, shrugging. "I get me. Why him too?" She gestured to Chaud, who, at any other time, would have felt offended that she apparently didn't consider him up to scratch - but this was underground exploration, and it was completely different to what he was used to.

"Well, he's helped save the world a few times, he might be able to assist you if you do find out where the Scourge is located," Kris explained. "He has experience in taking on enemy bases, you have experience in tunnel-exploration. That's why I chose the two of you - plus you're essentially a package deal anyway. I know you're good friends and you'd probably drag each other along anyway, so I may as well give you permission." She gave them an amused smile. "Which I suppose is what Chaud's visit to this place is about, making friends and all that, so I'd say this has been a massive success."

"Aside from the entire city being under threat from a complete lunatic," Zoet dryly said.

"Yes, aside from that. But finding the Scourge's base isn't the only thing I want you to do. I also want you to see if you can rescue the Hikaris. If you can, get them out of there and then give the location of the base to us - we'll take it from there. This time we're not letting the Scourge vanish into thin air, we'll take him down even if we have to kill him."

Zoet nodded. Chaud did too, but he was a little bit freaked out by how serious this had suddenly gotten - even when facing World Three or Gospel or even Nebula, no one had actually tried to kill the bad guy. They'd always tried to arrest them, or at the very least put a stop to their plans. But considering how far most villains were willing to go just for the sake of world domination (or whatever it was that the Scourge wanted), lethal force was probably the best option for these people.

Well, the Underground NetBattlers seemed to think so. He couldn't really blame them.

"Find the base - if it even is a base - and rescue the Hikaris, then get the hell out and let you guys deal with the rest," Zoet parroted their orders to assure Kris that they knew what they were doing. "Orders understood. Will we need our battle suits, or should we go civilian?"

"A Shade would stand out a mile off," Kris said. "And last time he attacked, he was able to infect battle suits with viruses. Some of those viruses activated the Navi control function in almost every battle suit they infected, but the Navi wasn't in charge - the viruses were. You'll have to go civilian just to be safe."

The Navi control function was horrible enough with his own Navi doing the controlling. Chaud didn't want to imagine what would happen if a virus was in control instead of a Navi.

Just as they were leaving the command centre, Arin called out to them.

"Zoet - good luck. You too, Chaud."

Zoet paused, and for a moment Chaud was almost certain she was about to continue ignoring her mother, but then she replied.

"Thanks, Mom," Zoet said quietly. She left.

Before following, Chaud glanced over his shouder at Arin. She was now sporting her usual wild grin, which he returned with a smile of his own, and went after Zoet.

 **oooo**

They changed out of their battle suits and into their civilian clothes, transferred their Navis back to their PETs, and headed out. Just before they reached the entrance to HQ at the antique shop, they heard someone calling out to them.

Zoet paused and closed her eyes. "Brat," she said, speaking carefully, "please tell me that isn't one of your idiot friends."

Chaud turned around and slumped in disbelief. Lan was running towards them looking determined, and there was only one thing that look could mean.

"Lan-" Chaud began, about to head him off, but Lan interrupted him.

"You're gonna look for my parents, right?" he demanded.

"No, actually, we've been assigned to beat up any idiots who think they have a right to defy my fucking orders," Zoet snapped, also turning to face him.

Lan, whether by sheer force of will or the fact that he was too worked up to care, wasn't bothered by her hostility.

"I wanna come with you," he said.

Chaud shook his head. "We can't, Lan. Kris ordered us to look for the Scourge's base or hiding place," he explained. "We're to find your parents as a secondary objective."

"And even if we had been ordered to do that first," Zoet snapped, "we still wouldn't let you come along. You're not an Underground NetBattler. You'll get in the way."

"He was all for letting us help with the Inky thing!" Lan protested, pointing rather rudely at Chaud.

"That was different," Chaud said, looking away from Lan. "Inkys are viruses, and besides, you can't do anything right now - like you couldn't back then. No offence to MegaMan, but there's no way you'll be of any use if you tag along now."

"What difference does it make? It's not like we'll have to fight on the way there," Lan huffed.

"We may have to, and you'll be defenceless," Zoet bluntly told him. "The Scourge has got the VR system now, he can make viruses show up in the real world - and who knows what else he has. Your Navi can't fight until he gets his spine fixed, which, as far as I know, hasn't happened yet. Our Navis will be focused on other things, they can't babysit your dumb ass."

"But they're my parents!" Lan burst out angrily. "How would you feel if your family was kidnapped by that lunatic, huh?"

"That lunatic is my uncle."

Lan paused. "O-oh," he stammered. "Right. I . . . forgot. S-sorry."

"Stop digging," Chaud advised him as gently as possible. "Just leave it to us, okay?"

Lan glared at them mutinously as they went back through the holographic wall - there was a button on this side that allowed it to become walk-through. They went out of the antique shop and headed straight for the Historical Station.

"You know he's probably gonna follow us anyway," Chaud said, after a few minutes of walking.

"Yeah." Zoet didn't sound too concerned. "If we're lucky he'll keep his ass outta sight until we actually find the base. If we can't see him, maybe the enemy won't, either."

"That's a pretty big 'maybe'."

"Eh. Not my problem if he's an idiot."

"He's not that stupid . . ."

"His Navi's crippled, unable to fight, and he still wants to tag along on what's probably gonna end up being a complete shitstorm."

Chaud had to admit she had a point.

Zoet decided that she'd had enough of discussing the stupidity of Chaud's friends. "Okay, we'll be travelling exclusively through the tunnels as soon as we reach the tram station. We don't have the benefit of night-vision anymore, so we'll have to rely on the lights from our PETs to get around. Luckily, Kris is right - I know those tunnels and I can lead us pretty much anywhere I've been before."

"What about anywhere you haven't been?" Chaud asked.

His friend gave him a sideways glance. "The fuck do you think we're gonna be exploring, you dumbass?" she retorted.

Chaud rolled his eyes.

They were just passing the animal history museum when a strange feeling overcame Chaud's body - he shivered, suddenly feeling ill, and stumbled over to hold onto a nearby street lamp. Then he threw up.

"Chaud!" ProtoMan exclaimed. "Chaud, are you alright? What's wrong?"

"Ugh," Zoet winced, looking at him with an expression of disgust - though she also looked paler than she normally was. "That's beautiful, that is. So you felt it too, then?"

"F-felt what?" Chaud coughed.

"That feeling like someone just walked over your grave. You threw up right after it, right?"

"What does this have to do with-" He coughed again, and doubled over, heaving.

"Yeah, that's how it feels if you go through it the first time," Zoet said. "That, my dumb chicken nugget friend, is what it feels like to be present when the VR system is activated."

Chaud managed to force his head up to look at her. "T-the VR system?" he repeated, feeling even more ill now. "So . . . so he's activated it?"

"Yup," Zoet agreed, eyes narrowed. "He'll be sending out viruses pretty soon. If we don't wanna die horribly, I suggest we send out our Navis."

"Can I . . . can I just have a minute here . . . Ugh . . ."

"You'll get over it," Zoet dismissed. She took out her PET and held it up. "Jack in, Virus and Flight!"

Just like they did in the training room, Virus and Flight materialised in the real world via the infrared jack-in beam. They both looked around the district with some interest.

"Never thought I'd see this place from the real world," Flight commented. "It's a lot different looking at things with my own eyes instead of through a digital screen."

"It is indeed," Virus agreed. It turned its head towards Chaud. "Zoet, perhaps you should jack ProtoMan in for him. It seems he is not reacting very well to the activation."

"A'right, fine-"

But Chaud had recovered enough by then, and he straightened up - very carefully, since he still felt like he was gonna throw up again - and pulled out his own PET.

"Jack in, P-ProtoMan," he said weakly.

ProtoMan materialised, but unlike Flight and Virus, he wasn't distracted by the real world. He immediately went over to Chaud and gently rubbed his back, which helped to calm his stomach somewhat.

"Just give it a minute," ProtoMan advised him softly. Chaud nodded and leaned against the street lamp.

"We're wasting the Sun Pyramid's light," Zoet said. "ProtoMan, you're big enough and he's built like a goddamn twig, just carry him."

ProtoMan glanced at her and then turned back to Chaud. "Will that be alright?" he asked.

"She's right," Chaud managed to say. "We're wasting time . . . and it's you, so it doesn't matter. Agh . . ."

Very carefully, ProtoMan took Chaud into his arms - kinda like how Arin carried Chaud when he was almost killed by that rockslide, but more protective. Now moving as a group of five for real, they were more wary of viruses showing up randomly. Attacks on networks were one thing, but viruses in the real world (previously unheard of, and of course the crazy country just had to be the first to have it happen) was sheer chaos.

"You know," Zoet said conversationally, "if this is how _you_ reacted, I'd hate to see how your idiot friend is right now. Probably vomiting all over the floor."

Chaud groaned and buried his face in ProtoMan's shoulder.

"Maybe we should go back and look for him," Flight suggested, glancing over her shoulder.

"Wasting time here," Zoet reminded them sharply. "But that's not what I meant. You can go back, Flight. Just zip around the air and find him, then bring him here. We may as well take him with us now anyway, can't leave the idiot alone in this shitstorm."

Flight nodded and shot up into the air, then vanished so quickly that Chaud didn't even see her go. He still had yet to see the speed that Zoet had told him about, but flying around breaking the sound barrier in mid-air was probably a terrible idea this far underground, no matter the size of the cavern they were in.

She hadn't even been gone for three minutes before the first viruses came at them.

It was a group of Kitty viruses, skeletal cat-like viruses that were more or less harmless on their own but could very quickly get dangerous if there was more than six or seven - which, of course, there were. They rounded a corner at speed and froze when they spotted the group of now-four, and then started hissing breathlessly.

"Aw, shit," Zoet said, and then the Kitty viruses came at them.

Virus sped past Zoet and launched itself at the group of Kitty viruses, lashing out with its clawed fingers. It also used its clawed feet to grip some of the viruses and keep them in place, or to kick them away when they tried to slip past it to the trio beyond.

The Kitty viruses soon had Virus surrounded, and it was beginning to have a difficult time keeping up its attacks.

"Design Shift!" Zoet shouted, but Virus couldn't hear her over the sound of battle.

"ProtoMan, put me down," Chaud ordered.

ProtoMan looked like he was about to protest, but he nodded and set Chaud down carefully. Then he dashed past the two humans and drew out a Proto Sword, beginning to hack and slice at the Kitty viruses surrounding Virus. Now with a second target to harrass, the Kitty viruses got more frantic, but at least they stopped trying to get past Virus to attack the human operators.

"Ribbon Whip, download!" Chaud shouted, quickly slotting the battle chip into his PET - the whip could help, it was both physical and long-ranged, and ProtoMan could use it to force back some of the more energetic viruses.

The Proto Sword vanished and was replaced with the two red whips attached to ProtoMan's palms. He barely paused in his attacks, switching tactics seamlessly, and began whipping away at the viruses. It worked better than Chaud had dared to hope, and ProtoMan was able to whip off a couple of Kitty viruses that were trying to climb over Virus.

But then even more Kitty viruses came around the corner, and jumped into battle alongside their half-deleted friends.

"Shit," Zoet muttered. She looked at Chaud. "Hey, do you still have those virus chips we got ages ago?"

"The- what?"

"The Kitty virus chips, you got two and I got two," Zoet explained in a rush, already searching through her own pockets. "Wait - here. These." She held up a couple of battle chips with the image of a few Kitty viruses on them.

Oh, he'd almost forgotten those chips.

He searched through his own pockets and found them relatively quickly.

"Download them," Zoet ordered. "We need all the help we can get."

They downloaded the first Kitty virus chips, and then the second, in unison. Each chip contained four Kitty viruses each, so after all of theirs had finished materialising, there were sixteen new Kitty viruses standing around them in a loose but protective circle.

"Two of you stay here, the rest help out our Navis," Zoet told her Kitty viruses.

Chaud repeated the words to his own group. They followed their instructions to the letter - four Kitty viruses stayed behind and formed a protective barrier around them while the other twelve streaked toward the battle, and then pounced on the other Kitty viruses.

It was fairly easy to tell the difference between the viruses. The originals, the ones who had attacked them, had the plain black eyes that all Kitty viruses had. The ones that Zoet and Chaud had sent out had red or white eyes depending on which chip they had come from, and also had a darker skin tone than the originals.

With the twelve Kitty viruses assisting them, Virus and ProtoMan were able to gain the upper hand. Within minutes, the group of hostile viruses had been deleted, and only two of the viruses that Zoet and Chaud had sent into battle were left out of their group, but they vanished in a burst of pixels as soon as the battle was over, having taken heavy damage. The four that had stayed behind as guards remained, though.

Virus stayed where it was to check that no more viruses were about to launch another surprise attack, while ProtoMan went straight back to Chaud.

"Thank you," ProtoMan said as soon as he reached his operator.

"Just doing my job." Chaud smiled.

ProtoMan did something that surprised Chaud and most likely himself - he reached out and placed his hand on top of Chaud's head, and gently ruffled his hair, like how someone would to their younger sibling.

"Ah," ProtoMan said, withdrawing his hand a little awkwardly. Chaud was still smiling, though, so he relaxed. "Are you alright now? You're standing up and you don't look as pale as you did before . . ."

"I don't think I'm in any danger of throwing up whatever breakfast I had this morning," Chaud reassured him. "Well, I kind of already did that, so I guess that's a little redundant."

ProtoMan let out an amused huff of laughter.

Just then, Flight came sweeping overhead. Clutched in her clawed feet was Lan himself, hanging on for dear life and looking too terrified to even scream. As Flight descended, Chaud saw that Lan was also looking sort of sick as well, so at least he hadn't been the only one to react like that when the VR system activated across the city.

Flight placed Lan on the ground (he immediately collapsed onto his hands and knees and started gasping for air) and landed beside him.

"Found him," Flight announced unnecessarily, grinning.

"I can see that," Zoet noted unconcernedly. "Did you freak him out much?"

"Oh, he was already being attacked by a few Mattaurs, so me showing up didn't exactly terrify the poor kid," Flight replied, shrugging. "I deleted the Metts, by the way. Very easy pickings. Oh, hey, we've got some viruses hanging around here too."

"They're ours," Zoet informed her.

"Awesome."

They were forced to wait a minute or two for Lan to recover - both from the sickness and the impromptu flying lesson from Flight.

He took in one last giant gulp of air, and sat up, looking around. His eyes stretched wide when he saw ProtoMan standing next to Chaud.

"Woah," Lan said softly. "You weren't kidding about the VR system."

"No shit," Zoet deadpanned.

Lan then did something that, under the current circumstances, was completely stupid - he jacked in MegaMan.

"No-!" Zoet started to snap as he lifted up his PET, but he'd already pressed the jack-in button and it was too late.

"Jack in, MegaMan!" Lan announced.

MegaMan, sitting in his hovering wheelchair, materialised in the real world a few feet away from Lan. He wore the same look of surprise that Lan had, but MegaMan had already experienced the VR system once before, so his surprise was most likely being jacked into the real world so unceremoniously.

"This is the coolest thing ever!" Lan exclaimed, springing up a little awkwardly. "MegaMan's in the real world!"

"L-Lan, that probably wasn't the best thing to do, under the circumstances," MegaMan stuttered out. Lan ignored him entirely and flung his arms around his brother.

"Even Pulse Transmission wasn't like this," Lan gushed, now hugging MegaMan so tight that, had he been human, MegaMan probably wouldn't have been able to breathe.

"Everyone reacts by hugging their Navis," ProtoMan said to Chaud quietly, echoing what they'd been told back when they'd first been shown the training room and the VR system.

"It's touching and all, but we need to get going, and this is only slowing us down," Zoet muttered, arms crossed. She raised her voice so Lan could hear her over his excited babbling. "Oi, dumbass, get it together! Do you wanna rescue your parents or not?"

At the mention of their parents, Lan and MegaMan both glanced up. Lan let go of MegaMan and stepped back, a look of determination on his expression now.

"So," he said, "does that mean you're letting me come along?"

"Not like we have much choice," Zoet huffed, uncrossing her arms. "If we left you all alone out here with just him-" She gestured to MegaMan. "-for protection, you'd get your ass torn apart in seconds. You may as well come along."

"We'll rescue our parents, Lan, don't worry," MegaMan told his brother.

Zoet made a noise of confused interest, and Chaud suddenly remembered that she didn't know about MegaMan's origins as Hub Hikari - only her mother, who had been in the data-bone reconstruction room at the time along with the team of data-bone scientists, knew.

But for whatever reason, Zoet decided to ignore it. She spun on her heel and was about to lead them away to the Historical Station, but then froze mid-step and cursed.

Chaud turned around and immediately spotted what had made her stop.

Just ahead of them, blocking the middle of the street, was a robotic NetNavi that resembled something from a steampunk-styled movie. It was dirty-brown in colour, but it was also strangely washed-out and muted, as if someone had tried to clean it and had accidentally rubbed off some of the colour.

It took Chaud a moment to recognise it because of the muted colours.

"Virtue?" he said. He'd only ever seen Virtue, the Navi whose job it was to manage the VR system's core in the training room, once before - most of the time it was just Virtue's voice that he heard, a warm but robotic genderless voice (genderless because, like Virus, Virtue had no gender, but unlike Virus, Virtue preferred to be referred to as 'they').

"That's not Virtue," Zoet said slowly. "Virtue doesn't look like someone tried to clean them and failed epically."

 **"I am Vice,"** the Virtue-lookalike said. Its voice, like Virtue's, was robotic - but lacked the warm tone and was instead as cold as ice. **"Master Zaliki created me to be the foil of Virtue, the manager of the VR system. Since Master Zaliki has gained control of it, I am now the manager of the VR system."**

"Of course," ProtoMan said in a low voice. "Remember? The Scourge mentioned something called Vice when he first contacted the Underground NetBattlers. This must be what he was talking about - Vice, the opposite of Virtue."

"And what does the new manager of the VR system want with us?" Flight called to Vice.

Vice tilted its head at her as if it were inspecting a mildly curious bug. **"I merely wished to extend a hand of greeting,"** it said. **"Is that so wrong?"**

"It is if you're working for that lunatic," Zoet bluntly told it.

 **"That 'lunatic', as you call him, is your family,"** Vice reminded her.

"Yeah, well, he may be my uncle, but he certainly ain't no family of mine!" Zoet snapped out. "Piss off already."

 **"Your goal is to find Master Zaliki's base, yes?"** A few viruses materialised behind Vice - an Inky and two strange cloaked viruses that resembled Swordys, but had scythes instead of swords. **"I am afraid I cannot let you do that. He has worked very hard for the last fours years and I will not see his plans go up in smoke because you decided that his ideals are insane."**

"His 'ideals', as you call them," ProtoMan called, "will lead to the entire city buried under rubble. I don't know about you, but I'd call that insane."

Vice shook its head and raised an arm, signalling to the three viruses to start advancing.

 **"I cannot change your minds, I know,"** Vice said as the viruses flowed past it. **"I can, however, stop you from advancing. Prepare to-"**

But they never found out what it was they had to prepare to do, for at that moment, two more Navis materialised in front of them. One looked exactly like Vice, except a solid dirty-brown instead of the muted colour of Vice, and the other was a tall, bulky Navi with giant blades attached to his wrists which, when put together, would resemble a pair of deadly scissors.

"We will handle this," Virtue said, and Chaud had never been more relieved to hear their warm robotic tone.

"Yeah, let's get cutting!" the blade-armed Navi shouted gleefully. His name was Scissors, one of the independent Navis, and he was a little bit crazy - but extremely powerful. Chaud and Zoet had once worked with him on a mission involving a virus-infected security system in a factory located in the Science District, and Chaud, who usually found it very difficult to get along with anyone who was far too energetic for their own good, had found himself enjoying the Navi's company. There was just something about Scissors that made him likeable.

Scissors burst forward and started cutting at the three viruses with his blade-arms. He was one of the faster Navis in the Underground NetBattlers, and he was almost a blur as he went straight for the two cloaked viruses - Rippers, Chaud remembered. Zoet had shown him a picture of them in case he ever went up against them.

In contrast, Virtue stood almost rigid as they watched the Inky flowing towards them. It opened its liquid mouth and Chaud could see it building up Acid Fire in its throat, but Virtue simply raised their arm and pointed their palm at it. With a burst of pixels, the Inky disappeared - it hadn't been deleted, Virtue had just sent it straight back to the cyberworld.

Virtue turned their head toward the group of Navis and humans behind them. "Go, there is a shortcut to the tram station not far from here," they said. "If you run into any trouble, run." They glanced at MegaMan and eyed his hoverchair for a moment, but then turned around when Vice started talking again.

 **"So, you are the Navi I was based on,"** Vice said. It didn't look too impressed. **"Your systems and data are much weaker in comparison to mine. Did your creator not think to give you combat abilities?"**

"I was not created for battle," Virtue informed it. "I was created solely to manage the VR system. I am here to take back what is rightfully mine, imposter."

 **"Underhanded insults will get you nowhere."**

ProtoMan and the other Navis quietly gathered up their operators and led them away from the battle going on - just before they left through a back alley in the street, Chaud caught sight of Vice bursting into action and Virtue rising to meet it. For a Navi that hadn't been programmed for combat, Virtue was a very good battler.

"Do you think Virtue can win?" Chaud asked breathlessly, as he followed behind ProtoMan.

"They weren't created for battle, of course they can't win," Zoet replied. "But Scissors is there and he's one of the best sword-fighters we have, he'll make sure Virtue doesn't get deleted by that Vice thing."

"Even if he's being attacked by two Rippers?"

"Rippers are nothing to him," Zoet dismissed. "To everyone else, yes, they're a huge problem, but he was actually created specifically to combat viruses such as Rippers. The company that created him went under a few years ago and he ended up wandering the net as an independent Navi before a couple of our own Navis found him messing around in the Cultural Areas. They saw his potential and took him to Livid, who discussed it with Kris, and the rest is history."

"Hey," Lan puffed, catching up with them as they ran. "Should we have left them alone like that? I mean, we could have helped-"

"We have our job and they have theirs, stop trying to be the hero," Zoet said sharply.

Lan glared at her, but made no further protests.

Virus, who was in the lead due to it being the only one who had the fully-detailed map of the entire city memorised, called back to them.

"We are nearing the tram station," it reported. "The next turn will put us out into the street that it is in, but we should proceed with caution - there may be viruses or even Navis waiting to attack us when we get there."

"Don't need to tell us twice," Flight half-laughed. "We've been attacked twice in the past ten minutes!"

"And it sounds like the Scourge knows exactly what we're doing, so we're probably gonna get attacked a lot more," MegaMan said from the back of the group. It was lucky his wheelchair was a hoverchair, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to keep up - there was a lot of rubbish scattered around the alley and he passed over quite a bit of it.

MegaMan was right. As soon as they exited the alley and came out onto the street where the tram station was, they were faced with an absolutely ridiculous amount of viruses. All the viruses, upon noticing them bursting out of the alley, turned around to face them.

"Really?" Chaud sighed.

The viruses attacked.

 **OOOOOO**

Hello cliffhanger, my best friend!

Don't tell me none of you expected this - the VR system was gonna be a part of the climax right from the moment I came up with the concept for it, and of course that would mean ProtoMan and all the other Navis get to come into the real world by proxy. Vice was actually sort of almost-last-minute, something I decided to create to promote the whole image of the Scourge being the complete opposite of Arin. Plus I don't think a human could operate the VR system anyway, it's really complicated.

Anyway, for those of you who're wondering why Chaud didn't get sick when he first went into the training room, that's because the VR system is pretty much always active in the training room. But since the Scourge got a hold of it and had to activate it all across the city, that meant Chaud got to experience what it's like to be inside the system's range when it gets activated.

It's not pleasant, obviously.

Oh, and you know Scissors? I kind of imagine him to look a little similar to Beast Out Zoano QuickMan from the _Beast_ season of the anime. I love his design and I think he's probably my favourite Zoanoroid because of that, hence why I decided to make a Navi based on him. Or his design, anyway.

Unfortunately Scissors isn't a main character, despite how cool he is, so he won't be getting a drawn design from me - you'll just have to imagine him. Maybe just pretend he's Beast Out Zoano QuickMan with grey armour or something.

Read and review!


	26. Chapter 26 - White Hurricane

I bet some of you are probably wondering what happened to Maylu, Dex, Yai and Tory.

I did originally plan on having everyone going to the Scourge's base, but after some thought I decided to scrap that and just have Lan tag along with Zoet and Chaud. The reason for this is because it's extremely difficult to write a large group of characters - well, it is for me, anyway - and I didn't want to have to force myself to give lines to certain characters if only to show that they still exist.

Plus having, like, how many Navis? Eight? Having eight Navis and seven operators is a little bit ridiculous. It's hard enough to come up with dialogue that can fit the entire group we have right now - four Navis and three humans - so having about fifteen people in one place is just . . . beyond my abilities. I can manage it if it's something like that scene in the command centre when the Scourge first showed his face, since that's all drama and it's not the main characters doing the talking, but anything like what's going on here and it'll just feel really forced and I'll keep thinking 'I've left someone out haven't I'.

And I just realised the only Navi from the main characters group who hasn't had a single word of dialogue in the actual narration so far is IceMan. He does get mentioned by Tory, but I guess I kinda forgot to include him . . .

Oh well, this story doesn't focus on him, it focuses on Chaud, ProtoMan, Zoet, Virus, Flight, Lan and MegaMan. Mainly Chaud himself since he's the 'main' main character, and only four out of seven of those characters get POVs.

So yeah that's how this all is. And I'm pretty sure Zoet would be ready to kill someone if she had to deal with such a massive group running around after her. She already doesn't like Lan and his other friends as it is.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

ProtoMan leapt into battle alongside Flight and Virus, but even as he hacked and slashed his way through the crowd of viruses trying to delete them and get at their operators, he knew it was a long shot. They had experience in fighting in the real world - the training room was more or less designed for this type of situation, he realised - but the sheer number of viruses they were having to fight was overwhelming. That group of Kitty viruses from before had been bad enough, but now there were all sorts of viruses, not just Kittys, and it was all going downhill very, very quickly.

Virus landed hard on its back not far from where ProtoMan was trying to slice up a couple of angry Spikey viruses, and it struggled to get back onto its feet. It managed to get onto its knees before the virus it had been tangling with - what looked like another Ripper - descended on it, whirling its scythe.

He drove his Proto Sword through the two Spikeys and hopped over a particularly violent Mettaur, but before he got there, Virus snapped up its head.

ProtoMan quickly looked away when he spotted Virus's head beginning to split open. He saw, out of the corner of his eye, the Ripper and any other virus caught in the line of sight of Virus's Smile freeze in place for just a moment, and then suddenly they burst into pixels.

Huh. That was interesting. So Smile could force a Navi to jack out instantly, but it could also delete viruses.

A moment later there was a burst of light from the corner of his vision, and when he looked back at Virus, a blank-eyed Jackal was in its place. Virus stood up and began attacking the viruses around it with new strength, not being at all careful - ProtoMan almost told it to pace itself, but then remembered the benefits of not using its own frame as a base for Design Shift.

Reassured that Virus was doing just fine on its own, ProtoMan looked around for Flight and spotted her near the back of the battle, stopping and deleting any viruses that tried to get past her to the three humans sheltering in the mouth of the alley. MegaMan himself was trying to help as much as he could, but all he could do was fire off regular Mega Buster shots and the occasional charged shot. Luckily Flight could handle the worst of the battle on her own.

She had changed her arms into wings, but instead of using them for flying, Flight was using them as though they were oversized paper-thin swords. She paused for a moment and a small green cannon materialised in front of her, and she gestured toward where she needed it to fire - which it did so happily, blowing away half a dozen viruses that were trying to sneak past her.

Well, he supposed, with wings attached to her arms it would be very awkward to make use of battle chips such as cannons or swords. Maybe there was some sort of telekinetic thing going on there, ProtoMan didn't know, but Flight and MegaMan had their operators handled so he went back to attacking every virus he could reach with his sword.

He spotted the four Kitty viruses that were still materialised from Chaud and Zoet's earlier battle chips doing their best to help out, but three of them were deleted while he watched and the last one was trying to drag another Kitty virus down with it before it too got deleted. That was one of _his_ viruses, ProtoMan realised, and he jumped over the heads of some of the viruses surrounding him to knock the virus off his Kitty virus.

When the bad Kitty virus had been turned into deleted pixels, his Kitty virus turned to him and hissed out a breathless sound that was probably a thank you, but then it suddenly spat and launched itself past him.

ProtoMan whirled around and the last he saw of it was just pixels fizzling away under Acid Fire. The Inky that had tried to hit him was idly watching the Kitty's deletion.

The Inky turned its head towards ProtoMan and, despite knowing that he had no way of taking it down, he crouched into an attack position and held out his sword.

But before he could avenge the deletion of his virus, ProtoMan was alerted to a battle chip being downloaded into Chaud's PET - the Elec Tornado. Chaud had likely seen that ProtoMan was completely surrounded and was responding in the only way he knew how.

His Proto Sword vanished and the Elec Tornado sprang up around him. Though he knew it wasn't going to do much, he directed himself toward the Inky in the hopes of at least doing some damage to it - but even as he swept towards it, he knew it was hopeless. Blade Cyclone did nothing to these things, and neither would Elec Tornado or any of the Elemental Tornadoes.

At the very least he could keep the Inky in place for a while, as for whatever reason these things seemed to be endlessly fascinated by his tornado attacks, and ProtoMan was able to sweep up a few other viruses into the tornado as he moved around.

He was alerted to a second battle chip being downloaded - this time Aqua Tornado - and was momentarily confused. Then he realised Chaud had probably seen the Elec Tornado doing nothing to the Inky and he was likely panicking, doing whatever he could to get ProtoMan out of danger. ProtoMan obviously wasn't the only one remembering the last time he'd tried to take on an Inky, and this time Virus was too busy on the other side of the street to use its healing method if he got caught with Acid Fire.

The Elec Tornado switched seamlessly to Aqua Tornado, and he was able to use the water whips created by the Tornado to attack viruses further away. It was a little hard to aim, what with all the spinning, but he was still pretty accurate and could snag two or three viruses with a single whip before it would vanish with a splash.

A third battle chip - Heat Tornado - was downloaded, and ProtoMan once again switched battle tactics as quickly as he could. It was hard to adjust to these, it felt almost like Chaud was trying to give him an unfamiliar program advance, but all he could do was attack with the Heat Tornado.

It had been a good idea to send him Heat Tornado, as not a moment later he spotted a couple of viruses that had managed to sneak so close to the Tornado that they were in danger of being able to hit him from the inside. The Heat Tornado blew them to pieces and forced all nearby viruses - aside from the Inky, which continued to watch him curiously - away.

And then Chaud downloaded the final Tornado battle chip - Wood Tornado - and that was when things got very strange.

The Tornado around him, instead of turning green, died down. ProtoMan panicked for a second, because it looked like Chaud had somehow screwed up the download and now he was left completely vulnerable to attack, but then white winds burst up around him and began to rapidly whirl around him in a manner very similar to a hurricane.

It dawned on ProtoMan what this must be, and he attempted to control it as though it was another Elemental Tornado, but it was much, much more powerful. This hurricane didn't seem to have any sort of element like the Tornadoes, but it was more powerful than any of them combined.

Briefly he wondered if this was at all like the white tornado viruses, the ones that could switch elements at will, and then not a moment later, the white hurricane pulsed with new energy and began spitting out what looked like sparks of pale fire. ProtoMan, while he was struggling to contain the white hurricane's sheer power, found he could control those flames at will. They whirled around with the hurricane for a moment and then he shot them all out at viruses that weren't in range of the white hurricane - whose range was considerably larger than the Elemental Tornadoes.

It was only when he was absolutely certain that he'd managed to hit most, if not all, of the viruses blocking the street that he stopped spinning. He almost thought he couldn't do it, the amount of power was so great that he was getting dizzy, but then he began to slow down and with him, the white wind also slowed down until it was nothing more than a gentle breeze which also disappeared altogether.

ProtoMan landed on the ground gently. He looked around for Chaud, saw him staring at him with wide eyes, and then stumbled and fell to his knees.

Chaud was by his side almost instantly, trying to help him stay upright, but ProtoMan was a lot heavier than Chaud and it was mainly through his own efforts that he managed to keep his face off the ground.

"What," Zoet said, coming up to them, "in the hell's name was that?"

"Looked like the white tornado viruses from the Military District's bank," Flight commented, landing beside her.

"I think it was a program advance," ProtoMan said. His body felt weak, but his voice was steady and strong despite that.

Chaud looked shocked to hear this news. "The chips I made create a program advance? All on their own?" he asked, blinking. "But . . . that's ridiculous . . . How could . . . They're not even registered battle chips, how did-"

"They're from the same virus family, and the same chip family," ProtoMan reminded him. He felt a little stronger now, so with Chaud supporting him as much as he was able to given his small size, he stood up. "That's what most program advances are."

"Wait, so Chaud invented a program advance?" Lan, who had just came up with his brother, asked incredulously. "How? I mean, from where we were standing, it just looked like he was downloading battle chips at random . . ."

"I admit I was panicking a bit, but I didn't think the Elemental Tornadoes could even _make_ a program advance," Chaud said. "No, it must have been something ProtoMan did - maybe you put a lot of power into the Wood Tornado or-"

"It was you," ProtoMan said firmly, not allowing his operator to finish his sentence. "You created those battle chips and you created that program advance, even if it was by pure accident. I won't hear anything else, got that?"

" . . . Okay," Chaud replied in a small voice.

"That was rather impressive," Virus said with Jackal's monotone voice. It was picking its way over to them, deleting any viruses that had been put down but not out by ProtoMan's surprise program advance. "Does that program advance have a name, by any chance?"

Zoet turned to Chaud. "Inventor gets to name it," she told him. "But if you call it anything stupid I'll deck you in the face."

Chaud looked horrified at the idea, and looked to ProtoMan for help. ProtoMan just shrugged - he was a Navi, he only used the battle chips and program advances, he didn't know anything about creating or naming them.

"How about . . ." Chaud thought for a moment. "How about White Hurricane?"

Zoet stared at him. " . . . Good enough," she eventually decided. She glanced around at all the deleted or being-deleted viruses, and made an impressed noise. "Your White Hurricane thing deleted pretty much everything here, including the Inkys. And here I thought battle chips didn't work on Inkys."

"The actual definition is that all known battle chips do not work on Inky viruses," Virus said, sounding as usual as though it had downloaded a dictionary. "By known battle chips I would assume that means all registered battle chips which, as Chaud pointed out, his Elemental Tornadoes are not. The data for his chips are not in any databases aside from Arin's, and she keeps that very well protected even from the most dedicated hackers."

"So congrats, you've just joined the ranks of Navis who can delete Inkys!" Flight cheerfully told ProtoMan, slapping his shoulder. "And you have the honour of being the only Navi who can delete them with battle chips, too."

"Uh, thank you?"

"Guys, more company!" MegaMan suddenly warned them, forming his Mega Buster once again. They all spun in the direction that he was pointing it and saw, to their horror, no less than five Inkys sliding their way up the street.

The tram station was just behind them, but Inkys could move very quickly when they wanted to, and they certainly didn't want five of them on their tails - especially since they couldn't count on White Hurricane to save them again. Battle chips needed to recharge before you could use them again, and unless you had something like Folder Back, you were stuck.

But before anyone could start to panic, an icy laser beam came out of absolutely nowhere and froze the five Inkys solid.

Lan and MegaMan, who had never seen this before, yelped in terror and were clearly anticipating the worst when a forty-foot crystal-encased dragon Navi landed with a crash on a nearby rooftop. She hissed at the frozen Inkys, which were started to melt inside of the ice and become deleted pixels, and then looked at the group on the ground.

"Who created that big wind?" she demanded, looking from one Navi to the other as if she expected one of them to do it again.

ProtoMan raised his hand. "I did," he replied.

He forced himself not to take a step back when Mythril fixed her shiny-hungry gaze on him.

"Be nice, Mythril," Roahm's voice came from the back of her head.

Mythril scowled and lowered her head until it was level with the street below, and Roahm slid off the back of her neck and onto the ground, grinning.

"That was very impressive, ProtoMan!" Roahm called. "I've never seen that before, what was it?"

"The White Hurricane program advance," ProtoMan said proudly, putting a hand on Chaud's shoulder. "And Chaud invented it."

"Woah." Roahm was clearly very impressed. "Well, you've done more than I did at age twelve - always getting into trouble I was, and here you are, saving the world and inventing program advances! Amazing, kid, really."

"Not that amazing . . ." Chaud protested awkwardly.

"Ah-huh," Roahm said disbelievingly. "And cactus juice is perfectly safe to drink. But good job all the same. Anyway, we need to get going, there's more Inkys running around and we need to finish here so we can go and back up Korock and his team of Navis in the Haven District, they're having some trouble with Sootys over there. Vile bird monsters, I swear . . . See you, kids!"

He climbed back onto Mythril and, with one last longing scowl at ProtoMan - or rather his hair - she took off and flew away.

"Oi, dumbasses, quit standing around - we have a job to do, in case you forgot," Zoet called. She was already halfway down the street and they hurried to catch up with her, doing so just as she reached the Historical Station.

No viruses were waiting for them inside, but there was a large group of people waiting to be evacuated. Chaud, ProtoMan, Zoet, Virus and Flight, who had all seen this before, didn't react and instead waited patiently for an opening in the crowd so they could get through to the tunnels. More than one person spotted the Navis with the human operators and openly stared - some out of fear, because they'd likely been attacked by viruses on the way here, or maybe Vice or any Navis that were allied with the Scourge. It was probably a good thing that Virus was using Jackal's design data at the moment.

Lan and MegaMan, who had been inside HQ since the attack began, stared around the tram station with wide eyes.

"I-I know that Kris lady said they were evacuating the city, but I never thought . . ." Lan trailed off.

"It's weird how calm everyone is, despite the chaos going on outside," MegaMan said quietly. He was watching a family with a couple of small children nearby. The parents were keeping their kids entertained and happy.

"We have regular evacuation drills just in case some disaster happens," Flight explained to them. "The last one was a couple of months ago. It's important for everyone in the city, even little kids, to know what to do if they ever have any real need to evacuate. The drills usually end with most districts having their people brought to the tram stations and waiting inside the tunnels until the drill is over, but in a real emergency - such as now - they're to walk through the tunnels one group at a time and head for whatever entrance of the city is nearest to them. Except for the main entrance in the Gate District, all of the city's entrances can only be accessed through the tunnels."

"There are lights that only shine during a true evacuation, to light the path to these other entrances," Virus added. "Do you recall the underground river of the Gondola station?"

"Yeah," Lan said.

"During an emergency, it will no longer be a river. There is a mechanical platform that slides out of the sides of the river walls, to create a bridge for people to walk on. It would be unwise to keep it as a river, as it would take far too long for the security team to evacuate the people via the Gondolas."

"That makes sense," MegaMan said. "I did wonder how they would use that entrance to get people out."

 **oooo**

Not ten minutes later, they found themselves walking behind a group of people in the shut-down tram tunnels. As soon as they reached a tunnel that led off the main tunnels, Zoet led them down there and through various other paths until they were well away from the evacuees and practically in darkness. The only light now came from the three PETs, and a handy light that had been installed into MegaMan's hoverchair. No one could decide if Dr. Hikari was psychic or just insanely well-prepared.

"Alright," Zoet said, pausing and turning to face everyone. "First things first - don't be a dumbass and copy what they do in those shitty horror movies. No splitting up, in other words. We stick together. Every few minutes I want a vocal check, to see who's here and check if anyone's gone and wandered off or something. I've been down to this part of the tunnel system before, but we're looking for parts that I haven't been in, and once we get to those we'll be in unfamiliar and dangerous territory."

"Aren't we already in dangerous territory?" Lan wondered.

Zoet glared at him. "No shit," she snapped. "Fine, perfectionist, we'll be in even more dangerous territory. Happy? Now get a move on, we have less than two days to find this bastard. Virus, I want you to make a map of where we go - anywhere not already explored gets marked, even if it leads to a dead end. Flight, stay at the back of the group with MegaMan, his light-chair thing is weirdly useful. Seriously, idiot, your dad is psychic and nothing will convince me otherwise. ProtoMan sticks in the front with me, and skunk-boy and - what's your name? - skunk-boy and the idiot can stay in the middle with Virus. Got it?"

"My name's Lan," Lan informed her. "And I'm pretty sure I already told you that."

"And _I'm_ pretty sure I don't give a shit," Zoet replied blandly. "Get moving, everyone."

"Don't take it personally," Chaud advised Lan as they started walking through the tunnels with Zoet in the lead. "She's like this with everyone, trust me."

"How can you stand her?" Lan wondered, with a mutinous glance at Zoet's back.

"Er, well . . ."

"You're terrified of her, aren't you."

" . . . Not- not exactly . . . okay fine yes, I am, a little bit, but we're still friends. She can be nice if she wants to be." Chaud shrugged. "I think maybe she's just being like this with you because, well, I _did_ tell her about everything that happened before MegaMan . . . got better."

Lan looked as though he'd just been given the answer to a very difficult puzzle. "O-oh," he said, now looking at Zoet in a new light. "That . . . makes sense. You've forgiven me, but she hasn't? Even though she's never met me before today?"

"Just be glad she hasn't ignored you entirely," Chaud said, and Lan gave him a perplexed look.

It took them under half an hour to reach unexplored tunnels, at which point Zoet ordered everyone to stay closer together. Going by the light of three PETs and MegaMan's hoverchair, they could see fairly well, but not very far ahead, so it was pretty slow-going as they moved through the tunnels.

They came across no fewer than ten dead ends within eighteen minutes of finding the unexplored tunnels, but Zoet didn't find this as disheartening as Chaud and Lan did. She said it was better safe than sorry to know where everything was, and if they came across a virus they couldn't fight in the tunnels, they'd be dead if they accidentally ran down a dead end while trying to escape.

Chaud saw her point and raised no further complaints, but Lan, who was tired from the walking and already sort of annoyed with Zoet, muttered under his breath for several minutes before Chaud advised him to shut up.

Zoet didn't want to stop for anything and if it had just been her and Chaud and their Navis, he would have agreed, but Lan was with them and he - while used to saving the world - wasn't used to trekking all through these tunnels or even this distance without a break, so Chaud suggested a quick sit-down before he collapsed.

"Chaud?"

He glanced up from his PET - he'd sat down on a nearby rock to see if he could figure out some way of coding in the new program advance so the system would remember it. ProtoMan was standing in front of him, a faint smile on his face.

"Hi," Chaud said, shifting a little so ProtoMan could sit on the rock as well. "What is it? I thought Zoet wanted you to be on guard duty or something."

"She does, I just asked Virus to take over for a few minutes," ProtoMan replied. "I wanted to ask about the White Hurricane program advance. Do you know anything about it? It's power, element, range, anything?"

"Well, we know it's massive and can decimate an entire street full of viruses," Chaud said, and ProtoMan snorted. "Other than that, I'm not really sure. We can't really test it out here so there's no telling how much damage it can do, but as for the element . . . I think it's kind of like the white tornado viruses."

"It can switch elements?"

"Sort of - when I downloaded the Wood Tornado chip in and that hurricane burst up around you, my PET kind of . . . there was this selection screen," Chaud tried to explain. "I think it was like one of those games where you have a bunch of pictures and they all show up on the screen one after another in rapid fashion, and then you press a button and it stops on a certain picture. It was like that, but with just the four elements - the one I stopped it on was Heat."

"So that's why the flames came out of it," ProtoMan realised, glancing at Chaud's PET curiously. "I wonder what it would look like if you had managed to stop it on Elec or one of the others?"

"Probably white sparks, white water whips, and white rocks," Chaud answered blandly.

ProtoMan laughed.

"Hey, Lionblaze, you're supposed to be guarding us!" Zoet called.

"Virus is doing that, I just wanted to talk to Chaud for a minute!" ProtoMan shouted back.

"Get off your red ass you lazy shit!"

"You're one to talk," ProtoMan muttered so only Chaud could hear. Chaud snickered.

 **oooo**

After Lan had rested enough, they continued on with their mission. The only light came from their PETs and the sound of people had long since faded behind them, but every now and then they came up against tunnels that clearly ran alongside those currently being used to evacuate the inhabitants of Nowhere City. It was faint, but when Chaud pressed his ear against the walls, he could just make out the sound of feet moving along and the quiet chatter of voices.

"I didn't know there could be so many natural tunnels this far underground," Lan said, gazing around in awe.

"Think about mountain paths and the cave systems that you can find in them," Chaud reminded him. "Those are entirely natural, yet you can sometimes get lost for days. It isn't much of a stretch to think that there're a lot of natural tunnels and caves that Nowhere City people have yet to find down here, too."

"Makes sense, I guess," Lan murmured. He held up his PET to light up a nearby wall, and the light briefly fell onto a spider crawling up the rocks.

Chaud felt his insides freeze, but he forced himself not to react - Zoet knowing about his phobia was one thing, but for some reason he felt like having Lan know about it too was just not gonna end well - and continued walking.

"Wow, spiders!" Lan whispered, shining the light around. Chaud could barely hold back a whimper when the light revealed several more spiders, some on the ceiling above them, and all of them quite large. Not as large as Zoet's pet spider, but still pretty big. "Aw, man, I love spiders. They're so cool!"

"They are not," Chaud muttered through gritted teeth, resolutely keeping his eyes ahead and his light on Zoet and ProtoMan.

"Oooh, Chaud, check that one out!" Lan was tugging on his sleeve excitedly, and against his better judgement, Chaud followed the beam of light from Lan's PET to where a giant spider was sitting on its web and chewing up what looked like a skinny rat.

Chaud froze in place. Lan, who had continued walking for a moment, suddenly realised that Chaud wasn't walking anymore and paused to glance over his shoulder.

"What is it?" Lan asked. He followed Chaud's gaze to the giant spider. "Oh, hey, it's eating a rat, I didn't know spiders could eat rats."

"They can if they're big enough," MegaMan said, coming up behind them with Flight by his side. The light from his hoverchair illuminated the entire area, revealing spiders scuttling along the walls, the ceiling, around on the floor - and most importantly, there was a massive one dangling in the air right next to Chaud.

The next thing he knew he was screaming, and there was suddenly a lot of shouting, but all he cared about was the _spiders_. They were _everywhere_. And the noise everyone was suddenly making startled the little eight-legged monsters so much that they also went into a frenzy, which just made everything worse.

"Chaud, calm down, it's okay, I'm right here - CHAUD!"

Someone grabbed him and lifted him into their arms, and Chaud clung onto whoever it was - ProtoMan, he realised - with all the strength he had, burying his face into ProtoMan's shoulder and wishing that he was anywhere but here in this spider-infested hell.

He was then carried away, to where he didn't know, but pretty soon the only sound that he could hear was pounding footsteps and someone crying. No, wait. He was the one crying.

Then he was being set down, but he clung to ProtoMan, terrified of being anywhere near the ground because of the spiders. They were _everywhere_ , they were-

"It's alright," ProtoMan's soft voice broke through his blind panic. "There's no spiders in this tunnel. I came back to one we've already been to. This one doesn't have spiders."

Chaud removed his face from ProtoMan's shoulder so he could look at him. "Promise?" he asked, half-hating how shaky and shrill his voice was.

"Promise," ProtoMan replied.

Chaud allowed ProtoMan to set him down, but not to let him go. They sat there for a while, Chaud just shivering in his Navi's arms, and then they heard footsteps approaching from the other tunnel.

Zoet appeared first, not looking at all surprised or even annoyed. She took a look at ProtoMan and Chaud, blinked, then went to lean against the wall to wait. Then came Virus and Flight, who settled down near their operator, and finally Lan and MegaMan, both looking utterly bewildered.

"What just happened?" Lan was the first to speak, looking directly at Chaud. He went quiet when he saw Chaud crying.

" . . . Are you . . ." MegaMan trailed off, and then looked to ProtoMan, evidently deciding it was better to ask him rather than Chaud. "Is he afraid of spiders?"

"What?" Lan interrupted before ProtoMan could reply. "Don't be silly, MegaMan, this is Chaud we're talking ab-"

"Yes," ProtoMan said sharply before Lan could say anything stupid. "He has a very, very bad phobia of spiders. I didn't even see them, or else I would've suggested going some other route . . ."

"There is no other route," Zoet spoke up. Everyone turned to look at her. "I checked, and Virus confirmed it - down that tunnel is the only route in this area we have yet to go through. If we haven't found anything before, the base we're looking for might be through there, or it could be concealing another tunnel system."

"But Chaud can't . . ." ProtoMan said, with an anxious glance at Chaud. "He can't go that way."

"Normally I'd agree with you and let him stay behind," Zoet sighed, "but we can't, not in a place like this. We need everyone. Remember what I said earlier, about sticking together? I meant it."

"She's right," Flight said. "If we leave you both here, anything could happen."

"No," Chaud moaned, realising what that meant. He buried his face in ProtoMan's chest, wishing that this was just a bad dream and that in a minute he'd wake up back in his hotel room in the Haven District.

ProtoMan rubbed his shoulder consolingly. "I'll make sure none of them get anywhere near you," he promised.

"I don't wanna go near _them_ ," Chaud whimpered.

"What if we just used some Heat element chip to burn away all the spiders?" Lan suggested.

Chaud found that idea extremely appealing, but when he looked up, Virus was shaking its head.

"That is both unwise and impractical," it told Lan. "We would risk a rockslide or worse."

"Uh . . . then I got nothing."

"I could try blowing them away with my wings." Flight held up her wings as if to demonstrate, giving them a brief flap. "The wind might make the spiders leave long enough for us all to get through without another incident."

"That would also cause a rockslide," Virus said.

"Damn."

"I'd offer him a ride on my wheelchair," MegaMan said, looking at his hoverchair, "but it can only seat one, and it's not big enough for someone else to sit on as well. But . . . what if ProtoMan just carried him until we're clear of the spiders? That way, if any of them come anywhere near Chaud, ProtoMan can just brush them away and Chaud doesn't even need to walk anywhere near them. He doesn't even need to walk at all."

"Looks like one of you actually knows what he's on about," Zoet said, with a scathing glance at Lan and Flight. Her expression turned a little more gentle - or as gentle as it could get, since it was Zoet - as she looked at Chaud. "Would that be alright? Can you handle that?"

"I don't want to . . ." Chaud mumbled, tightening his grip on ProtoMan. "Hate spiders . . ."

"Hey," ProtoMan said quietly, wiping away Chaud's tears with a gentle thumb. "It'll be fine, I'm right here, and I promise I won't let even a single one get anywhere near you. Do you trust me?"

Chaud looked up at him. "Yeah," he replied without hesitation.

ProtoMan nodded. "Then let me help you," he implored his operator. "That's what a Navi's for, right?"

"You're more than just a Navi," Chaud muttered, leaning into him. He felt rather than saw ProtoMan's smile.

"Ugh, goddamn saps . . ." Zoet said, disgusted. Chaud didn't need to look to know she was mock-gagging, but it didn't bother him in the slightest.

Everyone waited for Chaud to calm down enough for them to put their plan into action. He appreciated it, but knew that time was short - he didn't know how long they'd been in these unexplored tunnels, but two days wasn't that long and time was ticking. The more time they spent waiting for him to stop crying, the less time they had to find the Scourge.

That thought gave him a small boost of confidence, and he wiped his eyes and said he was fine to go.

But he froze as soon as they came near the tunnel with all the spiders, and immediately ProtoMan gathered him into his arms again so they could set off.

"Just keep your eyes closed and your head turned towards my chest," ProtoMan told him.

The moment he said that, Chaud was almost overcome with the urge to look around. He resisted the insane temptation and kept his hands over his head just in case.

For the next few minutes he was only aware of darkness and the occasional movement from ProtoMan as he shooed away any curious spiders. In the end it wasn't as bad as it had been before, probably because ProtoMan was keeping him safe.

The tunnel ended, and ProtoMan made as if to put him down - initially Chaud half-panicked again, thinking that spiders were still lurking everywhere, but ProtoMan reassured him that there were no spiders anywhere and that they had reached a large open space that almost certainly would not have any of the little monsters.

ProtoMan set him down on his feet, and Chaud cautiously opened his eyes.

"Oh," he said, immediately seeing why there couldn't be any spiders lurking around here.

They were in a cavern that was about the same size as the Shining Lake's cavern, except here there was no sparkling lake nor any glowing plant life. Instead, harsh artificial lights were strung along the walls and ceiling. And standing in front of them, clear as the sun above the surface, was a structure that could only be described as a secret base. There were viruses wandering around down below, acting as though they were guarding the base from intruders.

"Guess we found the Scourge's base," Zoet said.

 **OOOOOO**

A fight with viruses, and a timely rescue by the ever shiny-obsessed Mythril and her slightly-exasperated operator, Roahm. Woodchip is off somewhere else, don't worry, I haven't forgotten he exists, I just wanted to write Mythril saving everyone's asses from some Inkys because it's cool. Hah. Geddit?

Okay that was bad, moving on.

Next we get some tunnel exploration and a brief explanation of that new program advance - which, like the battle chips that Chaud created, is entirely made-up. The White Hurricane was originally just gonna be White Tornado, but that would've just been copying the original white tornado viruses, so I changed it to White Hurricane after finding out that hurricanes are a hell of a lot bigger than tornadoes and thus far more visually impressive in terms of attacks. The element-selection thing is the only thing that I kept from the original White Tornado program advance.

And Chaud is forced to face his worst fear - spiders. Luckily ProtoMan's there to help soothe things over, and it's a good thing too, because that tunnel is exactly where our unlikely group of heroes needed to go!

We'll get to the base's infiltration next chapter, don't worry. And it also looks like we will indeed go over thirty chapters (not sure if I've said this before but meh), cus I'm not sure how much of the content I'm planning to write will fit into just four chapters. This shit alone has taken like four on their own, and all that's happened is Lan and MegaMan's parents being kidnapped and the Scourge making everything extraordinarily difficult for everyone.

I write too much sometimes, I swear. But hey that's a good thing, means more shit for you guys to read, and more time for me to torture poor little skunk-boy Chaud.

Read and review!


	27. Chapter 27 - Storming the Castle

This fic is actually kinda like _Battle Network 5.5_ , isn't it? Since it's set between _Battle Network 5_ and _Battle Network 6_.

I was just eating my tea when I realised it, I think I was thinking about the untranslated games that Capcom made for the _Battle Network_ series . . . and it's kind of a shame that some of them didn't get international releases, cus some of them look really interesting, escpeially that one where you can be the operator of any Navi you damn well please (can't remember the name of it, sorry, but I do know you can choose any Navi to be the operator of and one of the options is ProtoMan, partly why I liked it, and another option is actually _Bass_ of all characters).

So that's what I was thinking about while I was eating. What do you guys think about while you're eating?

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

The first thing they did was agree to send Flight down to distract the viruses.

Well, okay, that was the second thing - the actual first thing they did was find a place to hide from sight, and then come up with a plan of attack. Zoet reasoned that the Scourge already knew they were looking for his base, so there was no point in trying to sneak around while the entire place was likely to be on full-alert. Chaud pointed out that their entire mission was to find the base, get the Hikaris out, and then give the location to the Underground NetBattlers - in that order. To get the Hikaris out, they'd need to sneak in anyway, even if the Scourge was expecting them.

"Fine," Zoet said irritably," what do you suggest we do, genius?"

Chaud popped his head over the top of their hiding place - a large collection of rocks near the entrance they'd just come out of - and ducked back down quickly. "There's not a lot of viruses out there, which may suggest a stronger guard on the inside," he replied. "So I propose we send someone out as a distraction. If we're lucky, that'll attract any other guards in the area, and the rest of us can sneak through into the base."

"If we're lucky?" Zoet repeated deadpan. "You're on about luck? For us?"

"If you have anything better-"

"Hey, you're apparently the expert at storming the castle, I'm just offering my opinion," Zoet defended herself, hands up as if to shield herself from Chaud's annoyance.

"Since when is he the expert, I'm the one who took down World Three and everything else!" Lan protested.

"With help," MegaMan reminded him sharply.

"Well, obviously I couldn't have done it without you, but-"

"You had help from everyone, Lan, otherwise you would never have been able to get anywhere near the leader of the bad guys to start off with," MegaMan interrupted him.

"But still-"

"But nothing, idiot," Zoet hissed at him. "Me and skunk-boy were given this mission, and you tagged along like a dumbass. Therefore your opinion does not matter whatsoever."

"I would rather think it should," Virus said unexpectedly, "due to the fact that Lan almost certainly has as much experience with 'storming the castle' as Chaud does."

"He does, yeah," Chaud agreed.

"But like Zoet said, he's not actually supposed to be here," ProtoMan pointed out.

"I vote we hurry up on that plan, I think the viruses are onto us," Flight suddenly said, checking over the top of their hiding place.

"Okay, fine, we'll go with his plan," Zoet quickly decided, gesturing to Chaud. "Flight, you're the fastest, go distract everything. Be your usual annoying self. When we're through, I'll return you to the PET. And no going supersonic."

"But-"

"Don't. Sonic booms in this place would bring the whole ceiling down on our heads - maybe if we were above the surface, sure, but the Scourge is an idiot and seems to think we couldn't find his stupid base if he dumped it here," Zoet said. "Just fly around, hit the viruses with Mummify and do as much damage as you can."

"Okay, fine," Flight sighed.

Flight snuck out from their hiding place, and Virus poked its head over the top of their hiding place to watch.

"She has just took off into the air," Virus reported. "Now she is attacking the viruses." The sound of extremely annoyed viruses reached them not a second later, and so did the sound of Flight's half-crazy laughter. "Now she is hitting the viruses with Mummify . . . there are some viruses coming out of the base's front gates. A good number of them."

"Should we go now, or wait a little bit?" MegaMan asked.

"Go now, while they're focused on Flight," Zoet said. "C'mon, everyone up, get your asses moving and try not to get caught, we may not be able to rescue you."

They snuck out of their hiding place and moved around the edge of the cavern, keeping to the shadows as much as possible. Virus and ProtoMan kept an eye on the battle, making sure to warn everyone when it looked like there were some viruses who seemed to be losing interest in the golden blur that was Flight. At that point everyone would go still, and wait until either Virus or ProtoMan said it was safe.

What with them being as careful as possible, it took them several minutes to get around the edge of the cavern. It was lucky the base took up most of the space within the cavern, otherwise they would never have made it without being seen.

They came up against the edge of the base and ducked behind some nearby rocks when a few viruses came speeding out of a door that looked almost exactly like the rest of the wall around it. If the viruses hadn't come out, they would never have known it was there. The viruses went straight for the commotion that Flight was creating, leaving the door wide open.

"I was planning on using the front door, but the back door is as good as anything," Zoet whispered. "Go."

ProtoMan activated a Proto Sword and rushed toward the door, keeping low to avoid being detected, and checked that the coast was clear inside. He glanced back at them and gave them a thumbs-up with his remaining hand. Zoet went first, then Lan, then Chaud after him. MegaMan came next, escorted by Virus, who was still using Jackal's form and was able to blend in fairly well with the shadows as a result of Jackal's black colouring.

Once everyone was there, they filed in cautiously - MegaMan activated his Mega Buster just in case, and Chaud saw Zoet slip a battle chip into her hand.

They were now inside the base. The hall they were in was grey and unassuming, and would have been described as boring if they weren't armed with the knowledge that a complete and utter lunatic had made this his home.

"Security camera," MegaMan warned them, pointing to their left.

"Got it," Zoet said. She took out her PET and pressed the jack-in button for Flight. Once she was back - and grumbling about how she'd almost had the viruses beaten - Zoet jacked her into the security camera before it could turn their way.

The security camera beeped quietly. It suddenly started smoking, and a small explosion blew out the lens - ProtoMan dived forward to catch it before it could make crash to the ground and make a racket.

"Security camera's broken, but I've hacked the system so it's still sending back the image of an empty hall," Flight said as soon as she was back in Zoet's PET.

"You'll have to stay in there in case there's more," Zoet told her.

"Alright, just make sure I don't miss out on any of the action."

Zoet rolled her eyes and gestured to the others to follow her.

It was almost like exploring the unused and natural tunnels, but there was no casual joking this time - just a tense silence and the occasional small explosion (and several dives from ProtoMan to catch the cameras lenses) whenever they came across a security camera. Once or twice they found that their path forward was blocked by viruses, so they had to double back and find another way.

Pretty soon they were completely and utterly lost, but at the very least they hadn't been caught yet, and it seemed that Flight's earlier distraction had worked like a charm. The guards inside were no more than those outside, and although stationary guards were a problem, all they had to do with the patrolling viruses was wait until they had passed to keep moving.

 **oooo**

They came across their first real obstacle after unlocking a digitally-locked door that looked a little more important than any others they'd been through or come across.

"What the hell," Zoet said flatly, upon entering the room.

The doors slid shut behind them (didn't matter, Zoet could just jack Flight into the digital lock to get them out), but no one took any notice, too focused on what was in front of them.

The room was quite large, almost the size of a small assembly hall, and would have been bare had it not been for the strange panels that began a few feet in front of them and covered nearly the entire room. The panels lit up in random patterns, but there didn't seem to be any reason for this, and some panels stayed unlit throughout the random sequences. On the other side of the panels was another space free of light-up panels, and a door.

" . . . Who wants to bet that there's some weird gimmick to this place?" Lan wondered.

Zoet gave him a 'you're an idiot' look. "This ain't a game, you dumbass," she said.

"He's right, though," Chaud said, studying the light-up panels. "Every base we've been to so far has had some really weird security systems in place, and a lot of them were essentially puzzles. Granted, we were in Electopia most of the time, and this is Savaro . . ."

"What difference does that make?" Lan wondered. "Can't be too hard. I mean, look, those panels are probably like trip-wires, right? The light-up ones could be active, and the ones that aren't lit up are inactive. So to get across, we just need to step on the unlit panels!"

"And you're basing your theory on what exactly?" Zoet muttered.

"Um, Lan, maybe we shouldn't assume anything just yet," MegaMan said, holding up a hand to try and calm his hyperactive twin. "For all we know, it's the other way around, or maybe the fact that some of the panels light up doesn't matter at all and they're all just as dangerous, lit-up or not."

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Lan declared.

And before anyone could stop him, he marched out and stood on one of the unlit panels.

Nothing happened.

Lan turned around with a grin. "See?" he said. "Nothing to it- AAAAAAAAAAH-"

The unlit panel he was standing on had just given way so suddenly that it was like it had just vanished into thin air, and Lan almost stood suspended in mid-air for half a second before he began to fall. Virus darted forward and grabbed him by the back of his vest before he fell into the pit that the panel had created, and hauled him out and away from the panels.

"And that is why you do not immediately act upon rash theories," Virus informed Lan, who was quite shaken.

"N-noted," Lan squeaked.

Virus deposited him next to MegaMan, who began fussing over him worriedly. Then it turned to Zoet.

"It seems as though the unlit panels open a hole, or else lead into some type of pit," it said. "I caught a glimpse of what was inside. Spikes. Very, very sharp spikes that would delete a Navi or virus and kill a human upon impact."

Chaud wandered over to the missing panel and crouched down to have a look inside. He could see nothing but darkness, no sign of the spikes that Virus had just mentioned.

"I see nothing," he said.

"It is too dark for those with eyes to see," Virus explained. "I, however, do not have eyes and therefore need no light with which to see, even while using another's form via Design Shift. One of several benefits of being part-virus, I suppose . . ."

"I'll take your word for it," Chaud decided, standing up.

"What now, then?" ProtoMan wondered. He gave the panels a considering glance and looked to the free space past the panels. "Maybe one of us Navis could jump over there and figure out how to make the panels stay solid."

"I don't see anything over there that could help, unless there's some sort of switch through the door," Zoet replied. "But it's worth a shot."

"I could fly over and-" Flight began hopefully.

"No, we need you inside the PET in case of more security cameras," Zoet told her.

Flight muttered something about missing action and unfairness.

"I'll go," ProtoMan volunteered. "It was my idea anyway."

He went and stood at the edge of the panels, judging the distance, and took several steps back for a run-up. Then he burst into motion and, just before he went onto the panels, jumped as high and as far as he could manage - which was very far indeed.

It looked as though he was about to make it, but just as he was over the middle of the panels, six sections of the walls on either side - three each - slid open to reveal what looked like lightning rods. The rods lit up and no one had any time to yell before they blasted ProtoMan, keeping him suspended for a few moments while he bellowed in agony, and then he was threw back.

He hit the wall above the door they'd come in through and slid down it, groaning. Chaud rushed over to him.

"ProtoMan!" he called, worried, as he skid to a halt and held out his hands hesitantly, terrified of touching him in case he made anything worse. "Are you okay?"

"Ow . . . I was not expecting that," ProtoMan muttered, forcing himself to sit up. "Looks like we can't jump across then."

"Any other suggestions?" Zoet asked as Chaud helped ProtoMan stand back up. The lightning rods on the walls slid back into place and the walls became walls once again.

"I could try hovering across in my wheelchair," MegaMan suggested, glancing up from Lan.

"Nope," Zoet immediately rebuffed him. "Can't be sure that won't happen any time someone tries to get across without actually touching the ground. Also, you're the only one here who isn't half-insane, we might need you to be the voice of reason or something."

MegaMan, who had frowned in annoyance when she'd refused his offer, looked slightly mollified.

"I am perfectly sane," Virus spoke up. It was difficult to tell whether or not it was offended.

"You're half-virus."

"I'm also not insane," Chaud said, raising a hand.

"That's bullshit and you know it."

ProtoMan opened his mouth.

"Don't," Zoet said.

ProtoMan closed his mouth.

"Uh," Lan spoke up.

"If the next words out of your mouth are 'I'm not insane', I will punch your lights out, boy," Zoet snapped.

"N-no, I wasn't gonna say that. It's about the panels," Lan said. "I got another idea."

"Oh, great, what is it this time? Deadly explosives? Burning acid? Irritated geese?"

"No, no, and, uh, no. What if MegaMan was right?" Lan glanced at MegaMan. "What you said, about it maybe being the other way around, what if that's the gimmick here? The panels that light up might be the way to get across instead of going over the unlit ones. There's probably some kinda pattern, but we can't see it because we haven't looked properly."

" . . . Huh," Zoet said. "You know, idiot, you're not as dumb as you look."

"Thank y- hey!"

Zoet turned to Virus. "Design Shift into someone tall enough to see the panels that light up and then give us a holographic view of the pattern, if there even is one," she ordered.

Virus nodded, and Jackal's blank NaviMarks shone with bright white light. When the light died down, it was Mythril standing there, a little awkward in the suddenly-cramped space, white-eyed and blank-NaviMarked.

Everyone had to back away quite a bit to avoid getting stepped on, and Virus accidentally shifted its foot onto a few of the panels - the unlit ones gave way and revealed more of the black pit below, and Virus quickly squashed itself onto the free space available.

"Try someone smaller!" Zoet shouted.

Another bright light, and suddenly there was space. In the Design Shift-Mythril's place was now Woodchip, who looked quite strange without his trademark irritated scowl or his bitten-leaf NaviMark.

Virus flexed its new fingers, which Chaud noticed were tipped with claws perfect for climbing, and jumped onto the wall behind them. It climbed up the wall for a few feet and then paused, looking over its shoulder at the panels below.

Absolutely nothing happened for the next several minutes. Virus remained utterly still on its perch on the wall for so long that the others eventually got bored waiting and sat down to quietly talk among themselves.

"Hey," Zoet said, nudging Chaud. "When this is all over and you go back to Electopia, are we still gonna be talking, or what?"

That was probably Zoet-speak for 'you're my friend and I don't want to lose contact with you just because we're in different countries'.

"You have my email address and I have yours," Chaud told her, a half-smile on his face. "We can get our Navis country-passes so they can go between Electopian and Savaron networks."

"Country-passes? Never heard of 'em," Zoet muttered. "But if that'll work . . . fine. Oi, do you guys have something called video-chat?"

"Yeah."

"We could do that, too."

"Aw," Flight cooed, "you two are besties! You gonna paint each others' nails and braid each others' hair during sleepovers?"

"Hair's too short, you stupid bird," Zoet snapped. "His and mine."

"Then grow it out," Flight retorted.

"Long hair annoys me. And who said I wanted my hair braided, anyway? I bet this dumbass doesn't even know how to braid hair to start off with."

"I actually do," Chaud said, much to the shock of everyone. Lan in particular looked as though he'd just been handed the best piece of candy he'd ever had, and Chaud just knew he was going to regret sharing this piece of information at some point.

"Well . . ." Flight, once she'd recovered from the shock, began. "You said nothing about nail-painting!"

"Nail painting is fine," Zoet said, "'cus I can paint my nails with the blood of my enemies."

"Why does that not surprise me?"

Their conversation went in several different directions - and even dissolved into an argument about salad at one point - before Virus announced, several minutes later, that it had finished studying the 'random' pattern of the light-up panels.

It jumped down from the wall and everyone gathered around a holographic, flat image that it created for them to view. It showed all of the panels, even the missing ones (which were represented by black panels instead of blue).

"This is the sequence for the light-up panels," Virus said, activating its memory to trigger the holographic representation.

Some of the blue holographic panels turned white to represent the panels lighting up, showing that there was indeed an actual pattern, just not a very comprehensible or even logical one. There was also a clear path - none of the panels that lit up would require anyone jumping insane distances - but it was fast-paced and difficult to follow.

"This looks like a damn dance routine," Zoet commented.

There was a brief silence, and then Zoet, ProtoMan and Virus turned to look at Chaud, who stared back at them blankly. Lan and MegaMan were also blank.

"Why is everyone looking at Chaud?" MegaMan asked. Lan just looked between Zoet, the two Navis and Chaud.

"He's our dancer," Zoet explained, a smirk very slowly creeping onto her face.

It took a moment for realisation to dawn.

"Oh hell no," Chaud immediately said, starting to back away. "No. No way. Nope. Nuh-uh."

"What is going on here?" Lan whispered to MegaMan, who shrugged.

"Don't be such a baby," Zoet told Chaud, striding forward before he could get away and grabbing him. She dragged him over to the panels and shoved him forward, and he stumbled to a halt right in front of the panels. "C'mon, ribbons, do your magic."

"No!" Chaud snapped, whirling around to glare at her. "Ribbon dancing is one thing, this is something else entirely! I am not doing this! Not even if you paid me!"

"Would you do it for a Scooby Snack?" Flight called from the PET.

Chaud ignored her.

"Did you say 'ribbon dancing'?" Lan asked. He was also ignored.

"Just do it and get it over with," Zoet said to Chaud, also ignoring them. "We can't jump or hover over it, so the only way across is to go over the panels in the sequence that Virus just gave us."

"Why can't you do it?" Chaud shot back. "You're an acrobat, you can backflip off a giant vine and land on your feet no problem, you can run through an entire district without touching the ground once, and you're pretty fast on your feet!"

"Parkour is different to dancing, you moron, just go."

"I am honestly so confused right now," MegaMan admitted. Lan nodded.

"Chaud, please, you might be the only one of us who can do this." It was now ProtoMan's turn to plead with him (though in Zoet's case it was more threatening). "It's only this one time."

"One time?" Chaud repeated, almost hysterically. " _One time_? This is probably the way to get to Lan and MegaMan's parents and we'll have to take them back across this stupid thing when we get back, this will not be a 'one time' thing!"

"Keep in mind that there's nothing to stop this thing on this side, or else that's what we'd do right now," Zoet reminded him.

"As stated before," Virus added, "there is likely a switch on the other side to shut down these panels and force the flooring to become solid. Even if the panels are activated as soon as we are across, we need only to flip the switch a second time to get back across."

"And what if it only deactivates the panels for a short while, huh?" Chaud snapped. "What if there's not a switch at all?"

"Then that'd be pretty damn impractical," Zoet retorted, scowling. "The Scourge is batshit insane and hell-bent on destroying the city, but he's not an idiot."

"Just go, please," ProtoMan begged.

Chaud looked at all three of them in succession, glowering, but he couldn't keep refusing under pressure like this. Eventually he sighed.

"Fine," he grudgingly agreed. "But if anyone laughs at all-"

"Dude, if I didn't laugh at you getting tangled in your ribbon while you were learning how to do _Swan Lake_ or whatever, I ain't gonna laugh at this," Zoet interrupted. "Get. Going."

"It's not _Swan Lake_ ," Chaud muttered.

"Whatever, now go."

Zoet and ProtoMan moved back to Lan and MegaMan, who were still completely bemused with the whole situation. Virus remained where it was, near Chaud, and once again brought up the holographic view of the panels.

"Is your memory adequate enough to remember this while you are moving?" Virus asked him.

"Should be," Chaud replied. Why, oh why, had he agreed to this? This was going to be so freaking humiliating. Lan was getting so much blackmail-material off him today, seriously.

A little reasonable voice in his head said that Lan wasn't the type to blackmail someone with this kind of stuff, but Chaud ignored it.

He watched the hologram a couple more times just to be certain that he'd gotten the pattern down, and then walked along the edge of the panel flooring to find the first one that would light up in the sequence. He stood in front of it, keeping an eye on the pattern currently flashing halfway across the panels (there were others that lit up, sure, but only one true clear path that he, as a human, could manage). Once the pattern he was going to follow had reached the other side of the panels, Chaud turned his attention back to the panel in front of him.

It lit up and he had no time to think about it. He stepped onto it and, remembering Virus's hologram, jumped onto the panel in front of and to the right of the current one. It lit up just as he landed on it - he breathed a sigh of relief, having thought he'd gotten the timing wrong - and then abruptly had to pay attention to the light-up panels and absolutely nothing else because dear god were these panels lighting up very quickly all of a sudden.

It was almost as if they were designed to go faster if there was someone trying to get across, which, given his luck so far, made perfect sense.

His first few jumps and steps were a little bit too stiff and he kept almost screwing up the timing, but gradually he realised that there was no sound of laughter coming from the group he'd left behind on the first free space. That gave him a little more confidence, and he relaxed as much as he could given the fact that he was, at this very moment, literally dancing across a pit of spiky death.

The pattern sped up a little in the middle of the panels and he almost lost his head for a moment, but forced himself to stay calm (insert nervous laughter here) and keep going, focusing on the sequence of Virus's holographic pattern.

Before he knew it, he was on the other side of the panels and on the second free space on the other side of the room. For half a second he still thought he was on the panels and panicked briefly because he couldn't remember what came after the last one, but then realised he wasn't even standing on any panels and was actually to the far right of the door that most likely led to wherever they needed to go.

Cheering broke out behind him, and he spun around to witness Lan and, surprisingly, ProtoMan jumping up and down, with MegaMan swinging his fists around in the air cheerfully. Virus was nodding its approval and Zoet had her arms crossed with a smirk, while extremely loud and joyful yelling was bursting out of her PET.

Chaud managed a somewhat-nervous smile and a shaky thumbs-up. He turned around and headed for the door and frowned at it for a moment. Then he spotted a small, almost unnoticable button on the right side of the door, and pressed it.

The door slid open and revealed a cylindrical hall that looked like it was made entirely from various wires and pipes. On the far end of the hall was yet another door, but there didn't seem to be any danger, so Chaud went through and started looking for a switch or something to turn off the panels in the room behind him.

He found something that looked like it could be connected to the panels next to the open door. It was like a tiny replica of the panels, and he considered it for a moment before tapping in the sequence he'd just danced to.

Chaud leaned over and watched through the open door to see if what he'd just done had any effect on the room's life-sized panels.

Every single one of the panels lit up and stayed like that. Virus, who was closest to the panels, cautiously put one foot on the panel in front of it and tested it out. It held, so Virus took a few steps forward, and then turned to beckon everyone else over the panels as well.

"See?" Zoet said once everyone was over the panels and inside the hall that was made from wires and pipes. "I knew your dancing skills would come in handy some day."

"If I recall correctly," Virus said, "your exact words were 'this is utterly useless but if you want to do it then go ahead'."

"Your memory is flawed and so are you," Zoet declared.

"My memory is perfect, it is you who is flawed."

"Everyone's flawed, can we find the Hikaris now?" ProtoMan quickly intervened before they could start arguing.

Zoet and Virus agreed to that, so they set off down the wired hall. It wasn't, as Chaud had initially thought, entirely made from wires and pipes - there was a metal walkway connecting one end to the other, raised above the floor of the hall. There didn't seem to be any point to all of these wires and pipes, but then there also didn't seem to be any point to the dancing panels back there, so it was either a Savaron thing or this Scourge guy really was completely insane.

Their footsteps echoed in an eerily metallic fashion as they walked across the walkway, and they reached the other side without incident. Chaud had half-expected to be attacked.

"Now how do we open this door?" Zoet muttered, glaring at it as if that would make it open.

"Maybe there's a button, like with the other one," Chaud suggested.

But even though they checked as thoroughly as possible, all they could find was a seemingly-blank panel that no one, not even Virus, could figure out how to work.

"We could try blasting down the door," Flight suggested. "Just lemme outta the PET and I'll-"

"How. Many. More. Times. You. Are. For. The. Security. Cameras," Zoet hissed through gritted teeth.

"Could I try?" MegaMan asked.

Zoet and Chaud exchanged a glance, and Zoet shrugged.

"Sure, why not?" she said carelessly. "Not much else we can do at this point."

They stepped back, almost to the edge of the walkway, to allow MegaMan's hoverchair to pass by and stop in front of the door. He leaned forward and examined the blank panel for a moment, and then pressed something on the arm of his hoverchair.

A beam of red light - similar to the infrared jack-in beam for the PETs - shot out of the arm of his hoverchair and into the blank panel. Nothing happened for a couple of seconds, but then there was a quiet rush of static and suddenly the panel turned electric blue.

The door opened.

MegaMan glanced over his shoulder and smiled at everyone's dumbfounded expressions.

"Dad also installed a decoder into the hoverchair program," he explained.

"Can your dad adopt me?" Zoet blurted out.

 **oooo**

Beyond the wired hallway was yet another labyrinth of grey and boring halls, but the difference between these and the ones previously was that the guard viruses wandering around were a lot more plentiful in number and very, very active.

It was suddenly a thousand times more difficult to get through the halls and they had far more close calls than before. A couple of times ProtoMan had to drive his Proto Sword through some viruses that had spotted them, and thankfully he managed to delete them before they could raise the alarm.

Security cameras were, happily, still the same. Flight could take care of those instantly but now it fell to Virus (still using Woodchip's design) to catch the camera lenses since ProtoMan was more often than not too busy trying to keep viruses from spotting them or else deleting ones that already had.

As a result of the upped difficulty (Zoet once again complained about everything being straight from a video game), their progress was almost slowed to a crawl.

But they still made progress all the same, and finally came to a hall that was different to the others.

Different because there were no other halls connected to it, and there was a single door at the end guarded by four mean-looking Spikey viruses. Three paced the hall, growling, while the fourth stood motionless in front of the door, its gaze fixed firmly on the entrance to the hall.

"I'll bet anything that's something important," Chaud whispered, dropping back to the others once he'd finished checking out the situation. "There's four Spikeys and a single door, they're guarding whatever's inside."

"Might be this idiot's mom and dad," Zoet murmured, jerking her head towards Lan.

"Then let's go rescue them!" Lan whispered excitedly.

"Hold it, Lan," MegaMan warned him quietly. "Remember the last time you took off without thinking about it first? There could be more viruses hidden where we can't see them, or deleting them might bring even more down on us, or opening the door could trip some sort of alarm if we don't do it right."

"I said this guy was the only sane one here," Zoet said smugly. "I totally called it."

"Of course you did," Virus replied. It was hard to tell if it was being sarcastic. "Chaud, what else did you see, other than the door and viruses?"

"Just the hall," Chaud said. "There didn't seem to be anything else there, but if there is something like a trap, it's well-hidden."

"Then it appears we have no choice," Virus said. "We delete the four Spikey viruses and open the door. Whatever comes after that, we shall deal with it accordingly. Are we agreed?"

No one objected, not even MegaMan, and Virus nodded.

"I shall lead this time," it said. "ProtoMan, kindly assist me, and MegaMan, I would appreciate cover-fire from your Mega Buster."

"Sure," MegaMan agreed.

"Humans, please stay back until we deem it safe," Virus said to the three operators, who agreed. There wasn't much they could do right now anyway, best leave it to the Navis.

Virus and ProtoMan dashed around the corner - immediately being assaulted by demented howling from the Spikeys - and MegaMan hovered after them to station himself at the entrance of the hall, with his Mega Buster trained on the interior. His eyes flickered constantly, the only sign apart from the sounds of battle of what was going on inside the hall, and occasionally fired off a shot to support the two fighting inside.

It was over in minutes, and Virus called them in once it was safe.

"And now for the dramatic reveal of what's behind door number who-knows-what," Zoet said in a mock-dramatic fashion.

Chaud gave her a weird look, but didn't say anything. Lan ignored her completely and went straight for the door, looking for a way to open it, but when he couldn't find a way in he let out a growl of sheer irritation and kicked it as hard as he could. Predictably, that also did absolutely nothing.

MegaMan came forward and gently moved Lan out of the way, and scanned the door thoughtfully. Once again he pressed something - some button, most likely - on the arm of his hoverchair, and again the infrared beam shot out and connected to . . . the door itself?

The beam held for several moments as everyone stared, nonplussed, and then it cut off abruptly.

"What," Lan said.

And then the door flickered, like a TV receiving a bad signal, and vanished altogether with a small burst of static sound.

It revealed a small, dirty room that looked strangely familiar, and it took Chaud a moment to work out why - this was the room that the Scourge had shown Dr. Hikari and Haruka in when he'd sent his first transmission to the Underground NetBattlers!

And sure enough, at the back of the room, was Dr. Hikari and Haruka. They were tied up back-to-back, gagged, but when the door vanished they both looked up and their eyes widened when they saw their rescuers. They started struggling with their bonds but couldn't get out.

Lan and MegaMan let out wordless cries of joy upon seeing their parents, and they both rushed into the room and began to untie them. As soon as both adult Hikaris were untied and ungagged, they sprang up and brought their sons into a heartfelt group hug.

"Sap," Zoet said, but she didn't look as annoyed as she usually was.

That broke the Hikaris out of their happy reunion, and Dr. Hikari and Haruka looked at the doorway where Chaud and Zoet, along with Virus and ProtoMan, were watching.

"How did-" Dr. Hikari began to ask.

"Long story, but the short version is, we're here to rescue you," Chaud explained.

Dr. Hikari blinked, and glanced at Zoet. "I don't believe we've met before," he said, "but if you're with them you must be here to help."

"No shit," Zoet said, and Dr. Hikari looked slightly taken aback. "Name's Zoet - that's Virus, I've got another Navi called Flight-"

"I'm in the PET!" Flight called, and Zoet held up her PET so Flight could wave at the older Hikaris cheerfully.

"I'm also Arin Zaliki's daughter," Zoet went on. "And skunk-boy's Underground NetBattler partner."

"You're with-?" Dr. Hikari broke off, and smiled. "Thank you for rescuing us, then."

"We have not rescued you yet," Virus spoke up. The adult Hikaris looked slightly disturbed to hear such a monotone voice. Thank god it wasn't in its base form. "While it is appreciated, I would ask that you hold your gratitude until we are out of the Scourge's base."

" . . . Hold on a moment, I just realised - there are Navis in the real world," Dr. Hikari said. "How-"

"The VR system and we really don't have the time to explain," Chaud said in a rush. "We don't know when the Scourge is gonna notice this - he already knows we're here-"

An alarm suddenly started blaring throughout the entire base, drowning out whatever else Chaud had been saying.

"You just had to say it, didn't you?" Zoet deadpanned.

"I'm sorry!" Chaud half-wailed.

 **OOOOOO**

Yay, they get to rescue the adult Hikaris! But then alarms go off, because that shit always happens whenever someone says something similar to what Chaud said. Very convenient for the bad guys, eh? Not so much for the good guys, though.

But in this chapter we get to see why that ribbon dancing thing was sort of significant, cus Chaud is the only one who can make it across without getting his ass fried. We also have a little distraction courtesy of Flight being a complete maniac, and a lot of hacking.

And we discover that Dr. Hikari is the most awesome dad on the planet, because who else would give his son a wheelchair that can hack things other than the man who was brilliant enough to turn his dead son into a Navi in the first place? I think TV Tropes calls this Crazy-Prepared or something.

Now keep in mind that Dr. Hikari has never actually met Zoet face-to-face before, unless you count the Inky incident, where he only knows her as Acrobat. Hence why they're meeting like this, and I find it very amusing to use Zoet's 'go fuck yourself' personality to surprise nice people (though saying all this I do remember that he's probably seen her before, back when Chaud slept over at the Zaliki mansion, though he didn't know her name at that point).

Anyway, next chapter we'll continue with the rescue, although I'm sure everyone can tell that'll go downhill very, very quickly. Yep, their luck is utter shit.

Read and review!


	28. Chapter 28 - Great Balls of Fire

So . . . on the day that I'm starting to write this - Sunday 2nd September, 2018 - one of my pet gerbils died. Her name was Kate, and she was an albino gerbil. Her sister is Ziva, a pure-black gerbil, who still lives but is notably subdued because of her dead sister.

I cried when Kate died. She bit me a lot, sure, and she kind of glared at everything, but she was adorable and she let me hold her for a few minutes while I was cleaning out the gerbil cage every other Saturday, not to mention she was extremely fluffy. Also the fact that she was albino, let's not forget that.

And I actually saw it happen, too. I noticed her just kind of lying down on the top floor of the cage, and I got worried, so I opened the cage door to see if that would do anything. She didn't react, not even when I started stroking her, and then I knew something was wrong because normally she would try to bite me or at least run off. So I picked her up (again, something I normally couldn't do) and she felt so . . . so cold. At this point she wasn't dead, just incredibly cold, but I needed to be sure, so I took her to my mom and asked if she felt cold and Mom confirmed it. There wasn't much I could do, we thought maybe she was just sick or something, so I put her back into the cage and onto the lowest floor, thinking maybe she could get some warmth in this half-log thing that's down there.

But she didn't really move around much, and I got worried again, but then I remembered she'd been on the top floor, which is where the food dish is, so maybe she was after some food. I got her out of the cage (which I didn't intend to do, but Ziva kind of ninja'd her way over and I had to pull Kate out and close the door quickly) and Mom tried to give Kate some little banana chip treat. Kate didn't want any, but then suddenly she just started jerking, like she was trying to jump outta my hand.

So I put her back, thinking maybe she just wanted back in the cage, but then as soon as I put her down she started . . . spamming everywhere. Like she was having a fit or a stroke or something. There was absolutely nothing I could do and Ziva was actually hiding in terror, but eventually Kate stopped spamming around and just lay still, except she also sort of twitched her legs a bit. Ziva came out and started to clean her fur, but then Kate stopped moving altogether, and after looking at her properly, I realised she'd died.

I took Kate out of the cage and placed her into this empty butter tub that Dad found, and then I started crying. Mom hugged me until I managed to stop, and I couldn't bring myself to speak while they (Mom and Dad) were digging Kate's grave out in the back garden. I'm the one who put Kate into the grave itself though, and now she's resting out in the garden with a wooden cross that has her name on it.

But I'm kinda worried about Ziva, now. They're both the same age - just over two and half years, Mom thinks - and apparently gerbils can die of loneliness. I can't afford to get another gerbil and I don't think I could force another gerbil on Ziva even if I did have the money, but I'm still worried that she'll go pretty soon as well.

. . . Oh, that kind of turned into half a story in itself . . . I'm sorry, I just needed to write it down somewhere, and this seemed kind of like a good place for some reason . . . I'm not sure why. You can ignore this particular AN if you all want to, I don't mind, I just needed to . . .

Yeah.

Anyway.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show.

 **OOOOOO**

"What do we do now?" Dr. Hikari asked.

"Try and get out," Chaud replied. He glanced at Zoet, but she was too busy scowling at her PET. "Dr. Hikari, why did the Scourge kidnap you and Haruka? He could've gone for literally anyone, even Arin, but he went for you instead."

"The Scourge?" Haruka repeated, horrified. "That's what that madman is called?"

"Er, well, he's got another name, but it's not really . . . public," Chaud explained a little awkwardly. "'The Scourge' is what Nowhere City calls him. He's responsible for a previous attack on the city four years ago, similar to this one."

Haruka continued to look horrified, but Dr. Hikari was thoughtful. "I'm not entirely certain why he chose Haruka and I," the scientist said. "He may want us for blackmail. At the risk of sounding conceited, I am one of the world's top experts in net technology, and the name Hikari is famous world-wide. I suppose he took Haruka as well because of that . . ."

"I'm a fucking idiot," Zoet suddenly announced, making everyone turn to her. The adult Hikaris looked mildly stern at her language.

" . . . Um, why?" Chaud asked. He'd never heard her call herself an idiot. Or he didn't remember her calling herself an idiot. Either one.

Zoet held up her PET. "Because I just tried to email the location of this shit-ass base to HQ, and it turns out the signal's being blocked entirely," she said irritably. "I'm an idiot. Should've sent the location before we got in here. Somebody hit me."

Virus flicked her on the head.

"Ow. Thank you," Zoet said to it. "I'm guessing the only way we can communicate with anyone outside of this place is by either getting out and sending an email from the tunnels, or by tracking down the place where the Scourge actually made his transmissions from and using whatever he used."

"I vote we leave, and now," ProtoMan spoke up. "There's no way of knowing whether or not whatever the Scourge used to communicate will work for us anyway."

"Good point. Anyone object?"

No one objected.

Zoet nodded. "Good, then let's get moving," she said, and turned around to leave. Her face fell. "Oh, come on."

Chaud was about to ask what was wrong now, when the answer to his unasked question made itself known.

 **"You will move no further,"** Vice said from behind them.

Chaud turned around as well. Vice was standing at the entrance of the hall, blocking their only way out. It didn't seem to have brought any viruses with it, but it had control over the VR system at the moment, so of course it could easily just materialise anything it needed to.

 **"Kindly place the Hikaris back into their cell, and await an escort of viruses who will take you directly to Master Zaliki,"** Vice continued. **"If you resist, I will have no choice but to take you all by force."**

"I wish to ask you something." Virus stepped forward.

Vice looked at it. **"Very well, I see no harm in questions. What is it, abomination?"**

Virus ignored the insult. "The VR system's manager, Virtue, was created solely for the purpose of operating the system and nothing else," it began.

 **"What is your question?"**

"I wish to ask what your purpose is," Virus informed Vice. "You very clearly have combat capabilities, and yet you are also managing the VR system at the same time - yet, as Arin has discovered, this is impossible."

Vice grunted softly. **"And why is this?"** it asked.

"Because the VR system is much too complex and powerful to be managed by a Navi who was not created for that specific purpose," Virus explained. "You have combat capabilities, which implies that the Scourge did not originally intend you to manage the system, also implying that he initially wanted Virtue themself rather than a stand-in."

Vice was silent for a moment.

 **"That is true,"** it eventually said. **"I was not originally created for this purpose - my creator wished to spite his older sister, and created me to be the opposite of Virtue. Virtue is, of course, a non-combatant Navi, meaning that I, as their direct opposite, am a combat-capable Navi. Master Zaliki changed my data and programs enough to be able to take on the VR system's power."**

"But you cannot manage that level of power, can you?" Virus asked, and Vice went still. "For a Navi such as yourself, battle-data and the VR system's data is too much. The Scourge likely wishes to have full control over the VR system, but as the Underground NetBattlers are able to materialise their Navis to fight back, he does not have that control. You cannot give it to him because you were not created for that purpose. The Scourge wants Virtue."

 **"What is your point?"**

"My point," Virus said in a ringing voice, despite it's monotone, "is that, the moment the Scourge has Virtue in his grasp, he will likely discard you. Perhaps even delete you. He will have no further use for you, and the strain of attempting to manage even a part of the VR system is already corrupting your data as we speak."

Chaud's eyes widened, and he stared at Vice carefully. He hadn't noticed it before, having been too focused on the fact that Vice was blocking their only exit, but it did look as though its data was beginning to fragment. It was hardly noticable if you didn't know what you were looking for and it could easily be mistaken for tiny glitches rather than data corruption.

 **" . . . That is also correct,"** Vice said quietly, **"but Master Zaliki will not discard or delete me. I am his loyal servant and as soon as I bring him Virtue, he will merge our systems and I will be able to take full control of the VR system."**

"How do you know that is not a lie?"

 **"And how do you know that it is?"** Vice shot back, sounding slightly annoyed now. **"He is my creator - he will not abandon or delete me. He cannot."**

"Humans have discarded their creations before," Virus said.

At that, Vice went utterly silent.

Virus gave it a few moments to think over what it had said, and then spoke again. "We request that you allow us to pass," it said. "The Hikaris need to be rescued, and we have no quarrel with you."

It stepped forward again, and when Vice made no move to stop it, continued walking. When Virus was right in front of Vice, it looked over its shoulder.

"Come," it said to its stunned audience.

Mutely, the rest of the group followed. They filed past Vice, who stood watching them without a sound, until finally it was just Virus and Vice staring at each other.

" . . . Thank you," Virus said quietly.

Vice lowered its head and didn't respond.

 **oooo**

With the alarms blaring over their heads, there wasn't much point in pretending that they weren't here anymore. Instead of sneaking around, they ran straight through the halls, ProtoMan, Virus and Flight (Zoet had materialised her again because there was no point in keeping her in the PET since stealth was no longer an option) deleting any viruses they came across and MegaMan providing as much cover fire as possible.

They got to the wire-hall and dashed through - Chaud tapped in the sequence for the panel room beyond before they left - and went over the panels that hid the pit of spiky death. Once through the door on the other side, they mostly followed Virus's directions, since it had memorised their earlier route and knew where to go.

But just as they rounded a corner several halls after the panel room, Virus held up its hand and stopped their progress.

"What is it?" ProtoMan, standing by its side to guard the front (Flight was at the back with MegaMan), asked.

Virus ran its hand along a wall, which was slightly discoloured. It looked as though someone had spat fire down the hall and had singed the wall.

"Sooty viruses," Virus said. "And close by, I would assume. The burns are still warm."

"What're Sootys?" Lan asked.

It was Zoet who replied. "Basically grey mechanical bird-of-prey viruses," she told him. "They have this attack that's basically a dive-bomb, and they trail fire whenever they use it. They're also annoyingly fast - as fast as Flight but worse since they're smaller and more, uh, aerodynamic-"

"I'm aerodynamic!" Flight protested indignantly.

"Not as much as a Sooty is," Virus said. "You can tell when you find a Sooty because they always leave behind a Dive Blast mark, such as this one." It gestured to the burn marks on the wall. "They are also effectively impervious to attack during Dive Blast."

"What about when they're not using it?" MegaMan asked.

"They are not impervious, but are very difficult to hit and so may as well be impervious anyway," Virus replied. "I am able to take Sootys down by using Smile to disable them, but they are immune to the full-deletion effect even when I am in my base form. As such it would be best to allow me to go out in front alone, and then ProtoMan can run his sword through the Sooty - or Sootys - when he gets a chance."

Haruka suddenly gasped, and everyone followed her gaze.

In front of the group, hovering in mid-air and glowering at them, were two grey falcon-like viruses. They were quite large and looked as though they could easily carry two half-grown humans in their talons, and were gently smouldering.

Before anyone could utter a sound, both Sootys burst into flames and sped through the air at them. Virus flung out its hand to try and stop one, while ProtoMan activated Proto Sword and tried to hit the other, but both Sootys ignored the two Navis and went straight for the humans packed in the middle of the group.

The humans ducked and left the Sootys wide open for Flight and MegaMan, who tried to hit them with their respective basic attacks, but Virus was right about the Sootys being impervious to attack while using Dive Blast - they just ignored the attacks and spun around mid-air, coming back around to continue their attempt to burn the humans.

ProtoMan jumped in front of them and brought up his Proto Shield, and one Sooty bounced off it - leaving behind a dark burn smudge on the shield - while the other abruptly changed direction and flew straight into the wall.

It bounced off the wall and went ricocheting all over the hall like an insane bouncy ball, still burning merrily away. The other Sooty screeched indignantly when it corrected itself mid-flight and shed itself of its flames, but when MegaMan tried to hit it with a shot from his Mega Buster, it zipped away and over everyone's heads.

The Sooty that was still bouncing all over the place was causing everyone to keep their heads down in case it hit them, but then the Navis were also trying to attack both that one and the other non-burning Sooty that had come back and was now zipping around trying to attack with its talons.

The non-burning Sooty screeched at Virus, who had managed to grab its mechanical-looking tail feathers to pull it back and away from the humans, and tried to bite Virus's hands. Virus didn't react and instead started banging it against the wall, apparently saving Smile for the bouncing Sooty or maybe it was waiting until both of them were in its line of sight to activate the attack.

Flight was flying somewhat awkwardly around after the bouncing Sooty, trying to stop it, while ProtoMan had herded the humans back against the wall and was protecting them with his Proto Shield. It was working pretty well so far, but he had to banish the shield regularly because the Sooty kept hitting it and weakening it, and it took a few seconds for him to get another Shield back up. During those few seconds the Sooty would aim itself at the humans behind him, but Flight managed to deflect it with her wings every single time, though it very clearly caused her a lot of pain to do so.

The Sooty virus caught by Virus decided it had had enough of being used as a battering ram, and started tearing at Virus's hands to try and force it to let it go. It tore great strips of data from Virus's hands but again Virus just ignored the pain (and Chaud knew it felt the pain, it had said so in that video ProtoMan had shown him) and held on.

Unfortunately its hands were no longer able to hold onto the Sooty and it managed to get away from it, speeding straight towards the humans. Flight spotted it coming and readied a wing, then batted the Sooty away before it got too close.

The Sooty bounced off the wall and fell to the floor, momentarily stunned, but before MegaMan could fix his Buster on it, the Sooty burst into flames and shot off again.

And now they had two invincible birds of fire attacking them. The bouncing Sooty seemed content with its bouncing, while the second now zipped around covered entirely in the same dark flames. It was getting harder for the Navis to deflect both of them at the same time.

Flight hovered in the air near the ceiling using her wings as painful-but-useful deflectors, and she managed to hit the Sooty zooming around - but she accidentally hit it towards ProtoMan, who thankfully still had his Shield up and managed to shove it back towards her. Then she batted it back to him and for several moments they batted the Sooty back and forth between them.

Virus was kept busy with the bouncing Sooty, trying its best to keep it away, but since it was bouncing randomly there wasn't much Virus could do. Especially not with its hands so torn up.

Just as ProtoMan batted his and Flight's Sooty back to Flight, the bouncing Sooty slipped out of Virus's leaping grasp and collided with it in mid-air. They bounced off each other and were thrown in opposite directions, but both flung out their wings and stopped in a burst of fire that threw off their Dive Blast coats.

For a moment, both Sootys merely looked at the group stuck between them.

And then at the exact same time, both Sootys dived straight for the group. As one, ProtoMan and Flight went for them, one Navi to a Sooty, and grabbed them as they went past.

As if they had discussed this beforehand, both Navis hauled their struggling Sooty toward Virus, who waited patiently. ProtoMan pinned his Sooty down on the floor, having to practically lie on it in order to force it to stay where it was, while Flight simply sat down and used her bird-like feet to get a better grip on her own Sooty.

There was a shredding sound, and even though Virus's back was facing Chaud, he knew that it had just used Smile. ProtoMan and Flight both looked away so they didn't get hit with the attack, while both Sootys were given a full blast of it. They both went limp in terror.

Virus backed off immediately while ProtoMan and Flight readied their weapons - a Proto Sword and Flight's very sharp wing - and then sliced through the two viruses with all their strength. The Sootys burst into pixels and the two Navis holding them relaxed considerably.

Meanwhile, Virus was now glowing with the white light of Design Shift. The light died down and now it was back in its base form. It turned to the humans still up against the wall.

Haruka screamed.

"I'm sorry," she said immediately afterwards. "I don't know what came over me just then."

"It is quite alright," Virus said. "Many react the same way - earlier today a young girl with pink hair also screamed upon seeing my base form."

"No offence, but you are very . . . er, disconcerting," Dr. Hikari admitted. "I remember seeing that squirrel-Navi before, though."

"Yes, that was the design data of Woodchip," Virus replied, nodding. "I use an attack by the name of Design Shift in order to change my appearance, but it is not a perfect replication of the original Navi."

"That sounds interesting," Dr. Hikari said, going into scientist mode. "What exactly-"

"Oi, Mr. Hikari, we're on a tight shift here," Zoet snapped.

"Ah - yes, of course, sorry. And call me Dr. Hikari. Or Yuichiro."

"Sure, whatever," Zoet said.

 **oooo**

The battle with the Sootys had taken up several minutes of their time, not to mention the alarms were still blaring annoyingly, so they were all extremely grateful when they came across a massive room that couldn't be anything aside from the foyer - in other words, the front gates of the base were right in front of them, if only they could get across the foyer.

'If only' because there were quite a number of viruses guarding the gates.

"Try that White Hurricane thing again," Lan said to Chaud.

"No," Zoet quickly said. "We don't know how many viruses are still outside and we may end up needing White Hurricane when we're through the gates."

"White Hurricane?" Dr. Hikari repeated curiously. "What's that?"

"A new program advance that can delete Inkys," Flight told him. "Chaud created the battle chips needed for the advance. ProtoMan's very proud."

"I most certainly am," ProtoMan agreed, a little smugly.

Dr. Hikari was looking at Chaud, clearly very impressed. "You created your own battle chips?" he asked, grinning. "And here I thought only SciLabs and PET companies like IPC could produce battle chips."

"It's not that big a deal," Chaud mumbled. He was pretty sure he was blushing so he ducked his head down to avoid looking at anyone.

"You're kidding, right?" Zoet deadpanned, giving him a half-bored glance. "The chip maker that my mom made isn't easy to use, and she said you figured out how to use the damn thing in minutes. If that's not impressive then I clearly don't know what is."

"If you are quite finished embarrassing Chaud," Virus said, "I believe we were discussing what to do with the small army blocking our way."

"I had an idea," Zoet replied.

"Oh, good."

"Rising Thunder."

Virus looked at her. "That would break the ground," it told her. "And quite possibly the entire building if it hit the walls."

"Then don't let it hit the walls," Zoet fired back.

" . . . Very well."

As it stood and made its way over to the viruses, which all turned to face it and made various warning sounds which it very casually ignored, Dr. Hikari glanced at Zoet.

"What's Rising Thunder?" he asked.

"You'll see," Zoet replied cryptically.

She fumbled through her folder for a moment, and then brought out a strange-looking battle chip. It looked almost like a Navi chip, it even had Virus on its design, but it was holding out its hands as if conducting something - that something was what looked like a burst of blue thunder that rose out of a fissure in front of the Virus on the chip's design.

Zoet checked that Virus was in place. It was now standing in front of every single virus in the foyer, of which there was a very considerable amount, and she nodded to herself.

"Right then," Zoet muttered. She downloaded the battle chip. "Rising Thunder, download."

Chaud kept his gaze focused on Virus, not wanting to miss a thing - he'd never seen Zoet or Virus use this battle chip at all, not even during training, but it was very clearly a powerful chip that was most likely on par with the new White Hurricane program advance, judging by the way she and Virus were acting.

Upon the chip being downloaded, the ground began to shake around Virus. It waited for a single second, and then brought up its arms very quickly - and blue thunder erupted violently from the ground, breaking it up and creating several giant cracks that were more like full-blown fissures. The blue thunder erupted out in front of Virus, spreading across the ground and taking in every single virus it could touch.

Several viruses, including three Sootys and a few other flying viruses, tried to escape via the air, but Virus simply jerked a hand up towards them and the blue thunder blasted them where they were.

Virus conducted the blue thunder for a few moments longer, getting at any viruses that tried to run away, and only when it was absolutely certain that it had gotten every single virus in the foyer did it allow the Rising Thunder to die down. When the blue thunder was gone, it left behind a ravaged and broken-up floor full of shattered stone and fissures.

Virus turned around. "They are all gone," it announced in the silence that followed.

" . . . That's pretty cool," Chaud said, stunned. "I can see why you don't use it much, though."

"Yeah, it's powerful, but it also runs the risk of breaking everything in sight," Zoet agreed, standing up. "Alright, we're almost home-free, let's go."

She and Virus led the way across the ravaged floor.

The front gates were less like gates and more like giant double doors that wouldn't be out of place in a castle of some sort, except they were metal like the rest of the base. Everyone looked around for some way to open them, and it was Lan who found the panel that presumably needed some sort of code to open the doors. MegaMan went over and used his decoder on the panel, and just like the one in the wire-hall, the panel flashed blue and the double doors very slowly opened outwards.

They ran through the now-open doors, but stopped short a few steps out.

The Scourge was standing in the middle of the cavern, apparently waiting for them. There were tons of viruses around him, quite a few of them impatiently milling around and clearly waiting for the order to attack, while others simply fixed their eyes (or whatever passed for eyes) on the group that had just rushed out of the base.

"Why can't anything ever go the way we want it to?" Zoet muttered under her breath, and Chaud had to agree. This was just getting ridiculous.

 **OOOOOO**

I'm ending these things on a lot of cliffhangers lately, but then again this is essentially an entire section - the climax! And thank god we're here right now, because I'm planning on just one or two more chapters to go towards the climax, and then we're getting into the epilogue. This is gonna be epic.

Anyway, y'all can thank my Tumblr friend Cinnamononions for the Sooty scene.

I was debating whether or not to add in a couple more scenes after that bit with Vice and Virus (their dialogue is fine to write, but put them both together and it's actually pretty much hell. Dear god I was torn between laughing at the formality of it all and screaming out of sheer frustration), and I was talking about it with Cin, and she suggested putting in an extra scene before getting into the final battle.

Since this is _Battle Network_ , I decided that was a good idea, because these games always have a 'before the boss' boss battle that comes before the actual final boss.

Cin also helped me out with figuring out the exact attacks of the Sooty viruses, so it's also thanks to her that Dive Blast exists.

So, yeah. Final battle is next chapter, and shit'll be getting intense. Depending on how much content I end up writing, I may end up with two chapters for the final battle, but since the Scourge is right there waiting for them, I don't think it'll end up like that.

Read and review!


	29. Chapter 29 - The Final Battle

Last chapter, we ended on a very evil cliffhanger. I seem to be doing that quite a bit lately, but since it's endgame and climax-levels of bullshit are always to be expected around about now, it's perfectly fine.

I'm stuck between making this chapter drag on so I can split it into two chapters, or just keep it all in one chapter so it seems more of a 'final episode' type of deal - not like anime-level of final episodes, since we all know animes usually have the Big Final Battle in the last two/four episodes and end the entire series off with a five or ten minute scene of the main characters and anyone else chilling out or celebrating or whatever. But, you know, story-level of 'final episode'. Meaning the Big Final Battle and then a few chapters afterwards so we can all cool down, and I can try to wrap up as much of the plot as I can.

By the way, I'm gonna give y'all another little shock about the Scourge in this chapter. Not the same type of shock as 'he's actually Zoet's uncle and Arin really did not want her to know about this crap', but it's actually connected to the games themselves, or at least-

No. No, nevermind, if I say anything more, we'll end up with spoilers, or at the very least you'll figure it out before I even get to write it in the chapter itself.

Let's get on with the chapter, shall we? Before I screw up.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

"Well," the Scourge said in his horrifyingly soulless voice, "I must say, I'm quite disappointed in all of you. I knew, of course, that you would make some attempt to find my home - I even expected it. But what I didn't expect was that you would be so foolish as to try to take away my guests."

"Guests?" Dr. Hikari scoffed, keeping Haruka behind him protectively. "Hardly."

"Unwilling guests, perhaps, but guests all the same," the Scourge said. "You also destroyed my foyer. That's going to take quite a bit of coin to fix, you know."

"Good," Flight said loudly, practically snarling. "I hope it bleeds you dry of coin. I hope you-"

"Now, now, there's no need to get nasty," the Scourge interrupted, holding up a pacifying hand. "All I request is that you return my guests to where they are supposed to be, and I'll allow all of you to leave. Well, most of you. I'd like to ask the Hikari boy and his Navi to stay behind with his parents."

"No way!" Lan shouted. "Why do you want us so badly, anyway?"

"The Hikari family is the direct reason for the downfall of my idol, and I want to rectify that," the Scourge replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "His ideals are what lead me to believe that this world relies far too heavily on NetNavis and the net itself - as plainly evidenced by the way you three children got through my defences. You could not have managed any of this if you did not have your Navis."

"Your 'defences', as you call them, were pathetic at best and non-existent at worst," Virus informed him.

The Scourge didn't react to the blatant insult.

Meanwhile, Chaud was trying to figure out what the madman had just said - Dr. Hikari had assumed that the Scourge had kidnapped him and his wife for blackmail purposes, but the Scourge had debunked that theory.

And as for 'the direct reason for the downfall of my idol', well, there could only be one person that could be. The one person that Lan and MegaMan, and by proxy their father and mother, were directly responsible for taking down time and time again, the man who had sworn that Dr. Tadashi Hikari and his family were his bitter enemies, someone who wanted nothing more than to see the downfall of the entire net society itself . . .

Dr. Wily.

Why did it always, _always_ come back to Dr. Wily and his insane grudge against the Hikari family? Heck, if it hadn't been a complete accident, it probably would've turned out that he'd been the one responsible for MegaMan being crippled.

The Scourge looked at each of them in turn. Was it his imagination, or had his gaze lingered just a little longer on Chaud than anyone else? Oh, great, did he also have a grudge against IPC or the Blaze family?

"I've changed my mind," the Scourge suddenly announced.

" . . . What?" Lan asked, taken aback. "You mean you'll let all of us go?"

"Oh, no, I'm afraid it's the complete opposite." The Scourge shook his head. "I won't be allowing any of you to leave. You see, I thought about it just now, and I've realised that, while getting revenge for my idol is my goal in capturing you Hikaris, I could also do so much more damage by using the other two children as well. Zoet, my sister would pay quite a bit of coin to get you back. And little Chaud, I'm sure your father would-"

"He wouldn't," Chaud broke in flatly. The Hikaris glanced at him, surprised, while Zoet, her Navis and ProtoMan were the only ones to not react.

The Scourge hummed thoughtfully. "Then the Officials of Electopia can pay in his stead," he decided. "You'll have to be put in the same room for now, I'm afraid. My home isn't equipped for this many guests."

"Go fuck yourself," Zoet declared.

"Now, now, my dear-"

"Finish that sentence and I'll shove a metal pole up your ass," she snapped. "No one's being held for ransom, and we're taking the Hikaris - yes, all of them, you assmunch - and we're leaving this shithole. If you disagree, we'll fight everything you throw at us. I'm pretty sure we can get through it all. Virus?"

"I estimate it will take us ten minutes," Virus said. "Perhaps a little less, depending on how many viruses are dumb enough to attack us at the same time."

Zoet gave the Scourge a smug glare. "Move aside or we'll kick your ass too," she told him.

The Scourge shook his head sadly. "My, you are violent, aren't you?" he sighed. "I don't want to fight you, you know. We are, after all, family."

"You're no family of mine, asshat."

"Insults will get you nowhere."

"I'm pretty sure a lot of people would object to a fifteen-year-old owning an entire city."

The Scourge ignored her and turned instead to Chaud. "And what about you?" he asked. "Do you object to being a guest of mine also?"

"Yes," Chaud said firmly, glaring. "I object a lot, actually."

"Touch him and die," ProtoMan growled at the Scourge. He looked at the viruses. "That goes for you viruses as well."

A few of them chittered uneasily at the threat, but most of them either didn't react or just made noises that sounded almost like mocking laughter.

"I'm sorry to be so cliche, but it appears that my side greatly outnumbers yours," the Scourge said. "You have four Navis between you - one of which is crippled and unable to fight properly - so I ask you, how do you expect to be able to defeat my virus army?"

 _He doesn't know about White Hurricane,_ Chaud realised with a jolt. That gave them the edge - now if only he could tell someone without alerting the Scourge . . .

He took out his PET and was careful not to look at it directly.

"MegaMan doesn't need to be able to fight properly to be able to beat you!" Lan called bravely. "He's the best Navi in the world!"

MegaMan spared him a grateful smile.

"I'm sure to every child, their Navi is the best in the world," the Scourge said condescendingly. "But brave declarations and loyalty to a computer program mean absolutely nothing, Lan Hikari."

"He's more than a computer program," Lan growled.

That was actually true - anyone would say that of their own Navi, if they were close enough to them, but for Lan and MegaMan that statement was truer than anything else. But of course the Scourge didn't know that, and Chaud had a feeling that none of the others wanted him to know either.

"I'm sure he is," the Scourge said. "However, these Navis can only exist in the real world thanks to the VR system, which was created by humans - and is managed by a program created by humans. Do you not think that-"

"Full offence," Zoet said loudly, "but I don't give a shit. No one wants to hear your bullshit reasons for your insane plans."

"Oh?" The Scourge seemed momentarily thrown, but he recovered annoyingly fast. "I was under the impression that the . . . 'good guys', as you call them, usually listen to the other side's story. I was also under the impression that-"

"I don't give a shit," Zoet repeated forcefully. "Your goal is to destroy the entire city, to bring literal tonnes of rock down on every single man, woman and child's head, and you've kidnapped two people and are attempting to capture three more for the sake of petty revenge. I don't care what your reason for doing it is. It's the fact that you're _actually doing it_ that I have a problem with. You can go directly to hell, and when I get there, I'm coming to find you and I will _never let you rest_."

A ringing silence followed her words.

"Oh, and you're a full-blown minus ten," Zoet added.

Chaud let out a slightly hysterical giggle.

Behind his shoulder, ProtoMan suddenly jolted. Chaud had just sent a message via the PET, as secretly as he could with the Scourge staring right at them, and he'd been able to do it during Zoet's . . . admittedly awesome speech.

He felt a slight touch on his back - ProtoMan was acknowledging his message.

Chaud spared a quick glance at the screen of his PET, and saw an automatic message being typed out. Navis could still control certain functions in the PET if they were jacked into the real world via the VR system, and hopefully the email ProtoMan was currently writing would be able to get through to Zoet and Lan's PETs. They couldn't communicate with anyone outside of the cavern, but maybe, just maybe, they could send a short message to the people next to them.

The PET screen flashed - ProtoMan had sent the message - and out of the corner of his eye, Chaud saw Virus, Flight and MegaMan stiffen slightly. They kept silent however, and it appeared that no one else had noticed.

"I was hoping we could do this without violence," the Scourge sighed sadly. He held up a hand, and Vice materialised at his side. "Vice, my guests are being just a touch stubborn. I want you to take them back to their room."

Vice didn't move.

A moment passed by, and the Scourge, for the first time since he'd shown up, began to look a little irritated. It was the first sign of emotion that he'd shown so far, and it was even more unsettling than his typical soullessness.

"Did you not hear me?" the Scourge asked, turning his head toward Vice. "Take them to their room."

Vice glanced at him, and then its gaze sought out Virus. The two genderless Navis looked at each other for several long moments, and then Vice turned back to the Scourge.

 **"I wish to ask something, Master Zaliki,"** Vice said.

The Scourge frowned at it. "What do you mean?" he asked. "I did not create you so you could question me, I created you so you could carry out my orders. Take them to their room."

 **"I am afraid I must insist,"** Vice replied. **"It concerns the VR system and its original manager. And myself."**

The Scourge sighed. "Very well, if you must," he said. "What is it?"

 **" . . . I wish to ask what your plan for me is after you get Virtue,"** Vice said. **"I am not the true manger of the VR system. I cannot control it to the extent you wish for. I was wondering . . . what would happen to me after you have full control over it."**

"I'll have no more use for you, obviously," the Scourge replied simply. "You were created to spite my sister - you're nothing more than a pet project, essentially. However, I will be merging your systems with Virtue once I get my hands on them. As they are now, Virtue is nothing more than a glorified program, but if I take your combat data and combine it with Virtue's own data, I can create the ultimate NetNavi, capable of controlling one of the most powerful systems on the planet and able to defeat any opponent that dares cross their path."

 **"And what will become of me?"**

"Your combat data makes up most of your core data, as you well know," the Scourge told it, as if he was talking to a particularly stupid three-year-old. "You'll simply fade away into nothingness, or else just become meaningless fragments of data floating around the net."

Vice was silent.

"Now that I've answered your question," the Scourge said, turning back to the group of humans and Navis, "I want you to take them to their room."

Still Vice didn't respond. It continued to watch the Scourge in silence, until the Scourge began to grow irritated again.

His eyebrows furrowed just slightly as he looked at Vice.

"Take them to-"

 **"No."**

The Scourge was speechless for several moments. That one simple word had shocked him, and everything and everyone else in the cavern, and now every single eye - human, Navi and virus - was on Vice and the Scourge, watching it all unfold.

The Scourge turned to face Vice fully. "I must not have heard you," he said, tone back to its usual soullessness, but it was dangerous now. "I did not program you to disobey me, Vice. Take them-"

 **"I do not care what you programmed me for. I said 'no'."** Vice lowered its head and, even though its face was a blank rust-coloured mask with nothing but black holes for eyes, Chaud got the feeling it was glaring at the Scourge. **"You created me, yet you dare discard me so flippantly? I, who have stood by you for the past several years? I, who above all others, would carry out your wishes and be sure that your ideals see the light? No. I will not allow you to destroy me. I am Vice. I am my own person."**

"You are a NetNavi," the Scourge said lowly.

 **"An independent NetNavi, whom you created to be the opposite of Virtue,"** Vice shot back. **"And that was your mistake. I will have no part in this."**

Without even a word of goodbye, Vice vanished in a swirl of pixels, leaving the Scourge alone save for his army of viruses. He turned back to the group still watching him.

"Hah," Zoet mocked him, "Vice just went Skynet on your ass."

" _Attack_!" the Scourge roared, loosing any semblance of composure.

As one, the army of viruses surged forward.

 **oooo**

As soon as the viruses started moving, ProtoMan rushed forward and grabbed hold of Chaud. He ignored the startled yelp and jumped as far away from the oncoming viruses as he could, onto a large flat rock, and deposited his operator there. The email he had sent to the other Navis told them about the Scourge being in the dark about White Hurricane, but it had also included an extra piece of information that Chaud hadn't known about - an order to get the humans as far away from the battle as possible, or else stay with them and protect them.

He wasn't too worried about the Hikaris - MegaMan would protect them with his life - but it was Zoet he was worried about. She reacted poorly to being touched and would go utterly ballistic if Virus or Flight just grabbed her suddenly.

While Chaud was demanding an explanation for his sudden actions, ProtoMan turned away from him and spotted Virus leading Zoet away from the battle and closer to the front gates of the base, while Flight kept the viruses from reaching them. The Hikaris were obligingly running along the side of the base wall to safety while MegaMan provided cover alongside them.

He felt a punch on his back - it didn't hurt too much, but it was the best Chaud could manage - and he turned back to his operator.

"What was that?" Chaud demanded crossly.

"The other Navis and I agreed to get you humans out of the way," ProtoMan replied. "Please, understand we're doing this to protect you - those viruses can hurt us, but they can kill you. I'd . . . rather not see you injured if I can help it."

"You could have at least told me," Chaud muttered.

Glad that Chaud understood and wasn't angry - at least, not too angry - ProtoMan turned and jumped down from the rock. By now the viruses had already covered the entire floor of the cavern, but were being kept away from the other humans by the Navis.

He activated a Proto Sword on each arm and began hacking and slashing through any viruses foolish enough to come near him.

He clashed with a Swordy virus and got under its defence, deleting it instantly, and turned for his next opponent - a Kitty virus which he made very quick work of. He didn't know if there were any of the worse Savaron viruses here, but if there were, they weren't coming near him just yet. Any Inkys in the crowd and they'd have to unleash White Hurricane early, and ProtoMan had a feeling that Chaud wanted to wait until the viruses' numbers weren't so high so they could assure a victory.

If only Vice had stayed behind to help them out . . . but it had already done enough just by refusing to carry out its former master's orders. ProtoMan didn't know what exactly it was doing now, but he hoped it was staying far away from here.

One of his Proto swords suddenly switched to a Widesword, which he used to delete any viruses directly in front of him. He was given a brief moment to rest, but had to continue hacking away at the viruses near him when they began to close in on him once again.

The next chip Chaud sent to him was a regular Sword, and then he was given another Widesword. With a smirk, he realised what Chaud was doing, and raised his sword-laden arms into the air a split second before his operator downloaded the final sword, a Longsword. The three battle chips combined to create one of the most powerful (but also most basic) program advances, the Life Sword.

ProtoMan used the Life Sword to carve out a scar in the viruses' numbers, which briefly left behind a space before more closed in to fill it up. He gritted his teeth and started swinging the Life Sword as much as he could, trying to get full use out of it before it vanished, but it seemed as though these viruses were endless.

The Life Sword died out all too soon, and he quickly switched back to Proto Swords before the viruses could make use of his lapse in attack and defence.

But then he had to abruptly activate a Proto Shield, because three Mettaurs decided to team up again attack all at once - he shielded himself from the attack and then turned the Shield on a group of viruses trying to sneak around him to get at Chaud, rebounding the Mettaurs' combined attacks at them instead.

He had no time to think as more viruses began to crowd him. A lot of them were trying to force their way around him, having realised that his priority was to protect Chaud rather than himself.

That was . . . less than ideal.

Especially when _every single virus near him_ realised this and suddenly they all started going for Chaud. ProtoMan started attacking more frantically, but for all his speed and power, he wasn't good enough to keep away this many viruses at once.

"Look out!" Chaud shouted.

The warning came too late - two Spikey viruses jumped onto ProtoMan and brought him down, cursing and swinging his Proto Swords everywhere in an attempt to force them off. The other viruses surged around him, some of them staying behind to snap at ProtoMan as he fought, but most went straight for the flat rock.

He heard a scream from Chaud and the sudden flood of rage gave him enough power to fling off the viruses and scramble to his feet, but by the time he was stable he was already too late.

A Ripper had grabbed Chaud with its skeletal hands, and as ProtoMan watched, it lifted him - ignoring his struggling - into the air and overhead. ProtoMan didn't dare jump up to free him, he was too high in the air to not sustain injuries if he couldn't catch him, and the Ripper could easily just slice Chaud up with its scythe if he even attempted a rescue.

The Ripper took Chaud straight over to the Scourge, who had not moved from his spot in the middle of the cavern even after the battle had begun, and deposited him in front of the madman.

Chaud tried to scramble away, but the Scourge took hold of him and swung him around to face the others, keeping a firm grip on him.

"Hold!" the Scourge called over the sounds of battle.

The battle froze instantly. The others were momentarily confused, but then they spotted Chaud's capture and froze also. Even from here, Lan's gasp of outrage and Haruka's cry of horror were audible to ProtoMan.

"This is known as a hostage situation," the Scourge said. "I'm sure you all know what happens in these scenarios."

ProtoMan wanted nothing more than to sink his Sword right through that bastard's heart - if he even had one - but he forced himself to stay put. Chaud was right in the middle of the army of viruses and being held captive by a complete madman; one wrong move and it would mean the end of Chaud's life.

 **oooo**

Chaud was being held captive and all he could think up was a storm of curses.

"Now, since my most loyal - or former most loyal - creation has left me, you have forced me to resort to such underhanded means," the Scourge said to the others, who were watching with a mixture of horror and anger. "You will all go to the room you found the Hikaris in and stay there. I'm sure you know what will happen if you don't."

The Scourge loosened his grip slightly, but Chaud was given no chance to escape - the Ripper that had brought him here pressed its scythe against his throat. Not enough to draw blood, but enough to make it difficult to breathe out of sheer terror. Chaud was forced to keep his head up in case the scythe did press into his throat.

There was utter silence in the cavern. No one dared move, least of all Chaud himself.

"Well?" the Scourge asked. "Are you going to comply?"

"You are an evil, despicable human being," Dr. Hikari growled. "He is a _child_ , and you're threatening his life to blackmail us."

"The Underground NetBattlers and the Officials of the world don't seem to care," the Scourge replied, his eyes briefly landing on Zoet, who was half-hidden in the shadows of the base's front gates. Chaud couldn't see her expression from here.

"They're not using him as blackmail," Dr. Hikari hissed.

Chaud glanced at ProtoMan, and his eyes met ProtoMan's visor. He blinked, then he flicked his eyes downwards, and he started moving his hands once he was sure that ProtoMan was looking.

ProtoMan, upon seeing what Chaud was trying to signal to him, stiffened. He shook his head, but it was very subtle and anyone not looking directly at him wouldn't have seen it.

Chaud ignored the head shake and tightened his grip on his PET, which had been in his hand when the Ripper had grabbed him. He hadn't let go of it, and now he was in the perfect position to give the Scourge the shock of his life. Now if only he could get to his battle chips without alerting the madman to what he was doing.

"Perhaps not, but it certainly says something about the competence of the so-called 'professionals' if children outstrip them by far," the Scourge said. "And yet, here stands one of those children, taken by one of the very people whom he has committed every day of his life to fight."

He gave Chaud a light shake, almost shoving him into the scythe. Chaud was only saved a sliced neck because the Ripper moved with the shaking.

"Do as I say, and he will not be harmed," the Scourge went on. "If you do not . . ."

The Ripper pressed its scythe a little closer to Chaud's throat. He felt a little bit of blood trickle down his skin and held back a gasp. ProtoMan was now looking utterly livid - Chaud hoped he would stay where he was, or else everything would go to hell.

Moving inch by inch, he slid his hand down to where he kept his battle chips. The Scourge was focused on his friends, so hopefully he wouldn't notice anything.

ProtoMan saw him, and tried shaking his head again. Chaud ignored him and started feeling his way through his chips. He knew each of them by touch alone, and he could easily identify the ones he needed.

"I await your answer," the Scourge called.

The Ripper pressed its scythe a little deeper and Chaud froze entirely, though he'd found two of the chips he needed.

"Alright!" Dr. Hikari shouted frantically, while Haruka stood with her hands over her mouth and Lan glared at the Scourge. "Alright, we'll go, just . . . just stop it! You're going to cut his neck open!"

"That was the idea," the Scourge told him. "But thank you for complying, all the same."

Chaud quickly went back to searching.

"I want each of you to make your way back inside," the Scourge instructed them. "One by one, if you don't mind. Zoet, since you're already there, just go in a little further. Next I would like to ask Dr. Hikari to go inside. The viruses will clear a way for you, don't fret."

Now Chaud had found the third battle chip.

"Then I'll ask your wife to go inside, and next your son. The Navis can go back into their PETs, if you children don't mind returning them. Then you can hand your PETs over to the viruses, who will give them to me," the Scourge said.

And there was the fourth.

Chaud acted as soon as he had all of the battle chips he needed. He lurched backwards, surprising the Scourge into stumbling back a step or two, and slipped out of his grasp and away from the Ripper with its slightly blood-stained scythe.

"Like hell we will!" he snapped, holding out his PET. He downloaded the battle chips he'd gotten. "Elec, Aqua, Heat, Wood! Program advance, White Hurricane!"

"Chaud, no!" he heard ProtoMan shout, but it was too late - the white swirling winds had already begun to consume him, and with one last look of defeat and exasperation, ProtoMan allowed it to take over.

The White Hurricane sprang up and began to tear apart every single virus that it touched.

Some of the viruses tried to run, but were quickly swept up and torn apart in a rush of pixels that were, for lack of better terms, eaten up by the White Hurricane.

Chaud glanced at his PET. The selection screen was flashing with the four different elements, and he concentrated hard in order to get the one that he wanted - the most powerful one.

He stopped the selection and it paused on Wood.

Almost at once, the White Hurricane started tearing up the ground around it. Chaud had known it would cause some sort of reaction similar to the Wood Tornado, but he hadn't expected it to be like this - it was practically causing full-blown earthquakes, and not just where the Hurricane met the ground, but across the entire cavern.

Chaud almost lost his footing with all the shaking. Cracks were beginning to run across the floor and it was all coming up, and it got steadily worse as ProtoMan directed the White Hurricane towards where Chaud and the Scourge were standing, evidently deciding that the only way to save Chaud was to head straight for him.

With the viruses running scared from the program advance, Chaud took the opportunity to make a break for it. The safest place would probably be the base, so that was where he went. The others had already gotten inside, but before he reached the front gates, rocks started to fall from the ceiling.

"CHAUD!" Dr. Hikari bellowed.

He kept going, hands over his head, but a cluster of rocks collapsed right in front of him and he scrambled back, momentarily startled into stillness. Then the shaking ground forced him out of his brief frozen state and he dived to the side just before more rocks came crashing down exactly where he'd been standing.

Chaud breathed a sigh of relief, but he was far from out of danger. He chanced a glance at the White Hurricane, which ProtoMan was now directing around the other side of the cavern, hunting out any viruses that had tried to escape. Was it Chaud's imagination, or were some of the viruses actually being sucked into the Hurricane even as they ran for their digital lives?

The ground was still shaking and suddenly it split beneath his feet - maybe he should've gone with Aqua instead - which almost caused him to fall into the resulting crevice.

But he didn't, because someone grabbed him and hauled him away just before he fell in.

He glanced up, half-expecting ProtoMan even though he was out there in the middle of the White Hurricane, but it was Dr. Hikari he found himself looking at. Lan's father gave him a relieved grin and began to pull him towards the base, helping him up when he stumbled.

Then the ground was suddenly shaking too violently for either of them to run, let alone walk, and more rocks were falling. Dr. Hikari spun around and shielded Chaud with his own body as some crumbled down onto them.

But they were never hit.

Several moments passed before either of them realised that they weren't buried under rocks, and they both looked up - to their shock, there was a shimmering, almost transparent dome shielding them from the rocks that had almost buried them.

"You are foolish and reckless, Dr. Hikari," a monotone voice behind them said. "But also brave, to save a child who is not even your son."

Dr. Hikari loosened his grip on Chaud as they turned around. Virus was standing a few feet behind them, one clawed hand raised almost casually into the air, palm facing the transparent dome. Its faceless head was looking at them, though.

"Thank you, I think," Dr. Hikari replied, a little nonplussed.

Virus nodded slowly, and then pushed its hand up. With it, the dome grew quickly and threw off the rocks, then vanished entirely.

Dr. Hikari led Chaud over the cracked ground towards Virus, who then led both of them into the base and to safety. Chaud glanced over his shoulder as they came in; ProtoMan was still tearing up the army of viruses with White Hurricane, and it didn't seem like he'd be doing it for much longer, since almost all of them were gone by now.

He was startled out of his thoughts when Lan spoke to him.

"Man, I thought you were and Dad were gonna get buried there!" he gasped, as Chaud turned to face him.

"So did I," Chaud admitted, smiling. Now that he wasn't in danger of dying from falling rocks, he could truly appreciate what Dr. Hikari had just done for him. "Um, Dr. Hikari? Thank you for saving me."

"Think nothing of it," Dr. Hikari replied, with a smile of his own. "Ow - Haruka, darling, you're crushing my ribs . . ."

Haruka had just gripped her husband in a tight, relieved embrace, but she sprang back as he spoke.

"I'm so sorry!" she cried, hands over her mouth. "I didn't mean to- are you alright, Yuichiro? Are you hurt?" She glanced at Chaud. "Either of you?"

"We're both fine," Dr. Hikari reassured her gently, taking her by the shoulders. "See? I'm fine, and so is Chaud - right, Chaud?"

"Yeah," Chaud replied, but he yelped when a fist collided painfully with his shoulder.

"You won't be fine when I'm done with you," Zoet growled. "What the hell were you thinking, throwing out White Hurricane like that? You could've been killed, you little shit!"

"It was the only thing I could think of!" Chaud protested, rubbing his shoulder. Sheesh, she had a powerful punch.

"Next time think of something better than causing earthquakes," Zoet snapped. She looked him up and down for a moment, and then nodded at him. "Yeah, you're fine. Don't ever do that again. If you die I'm breaking into the afterlife and dragging you back to this shitty excuse of mortality."

"Thanks for the care," Chaud muttered. For all his sarcasm - and Zoet's harsh words - a warm feeling was spreading throughout his body. These people cared about him, even if they showed it in different ways. That thought was . . . comforting. And heartening.

And no doubt ProtoMan was gonna go utterly ballistic when he was done with White Hurricane, but at least that was out of concern rather than anger.

He was half-right - a few minutes later, ProtoMan came storming into the base's destroyed foyer (Flight, Virus and MegaMan quickly made their way outside to hunt down any viruses he may have missed) and went straight for Chaud.

ProtoMan bent down so their eyes were level and gripped Chaud's shoulders firmly.

"Never," he hissed, "do that again."

"Okay," Chaud replied, unable to restrain a grin.

"What are you smiling at? You could've been killed! Why're you- _stop laughing_! Have you gone mad? Chaud! Will you stop-"

Chaud shut him up by hugging him. It worked, and also had the added benefit of having ProtoMan sigh in defeat, mutter something about idiot children, and wrap his own arms around Chaud semi-protectively.

Lan, out of the corner of Chaud's eye, was gaping at them openly. "Wow," he said softly. "I never thought I'd see the day when Chaud of all people gets affectionate with anyone."

"What're you on about, he's the most huggy little shit on the planet," Zoet said flatly.

 **OOOOOO**

YES. FINALLY. THE CLIMAX IS OVER. HOLY SHIT.

You guys know what this means? I'll tell you what it means - it means we're almost at the end of the story! I'm planning one or two more chapters after this, and then I'm actually finished with it!

This means that _The Underground NetBattlers_ will be my second completed fic, not to mention my longest (and probably best-written, since my first completed fic was a piece of utter shit), and dear god is that the greatest thing to ever be a thing. I'm so excited to write the full ending of this fic because that means I can happily say that I have a full story and it'll actually be a full story, and also completing this means I can upload the story onto whatever websites I wanna. MY STORY IS ALMOST COMPLETE.

Ahem.

Moving on from my excitement.

You know that bit at the start, with Vice deserting the Scourge's insane ass?

I did that mostly for the benefit of Zoet getting to say 'hah, Vice just went Skynet on your ass'. Yup, Vice's desertion was basically just for that specific line.

I'll show you guys what happened with Vice after this, don't worry. And you'll also get to hear the debriefing (I think that's what it's called? Whatever) next chapter, which is basically me getting Kris and the other leaders to explain the Scourge's insane plan, because we didn't get to hear it in this chapter.

Why, you ask? Because I'm kinda sick of villains monologuing about their oh-so-horrible backstories or their full evil master plan five seconds before the final battle. I decided to have the final battle happen and then get someone else to explain shit afterwards, which is honestly a little more true to real life (if real life had villains who used materialised viruses to do their evil bidding).

Read and review!


	30. Chapter 30 - Explain Yourself

YOOOOOOOOOOO AND WELCOME TO THE POSSIBLY-SECOND-TO-LAST CHAPTER OF THE ENTIRE GODDAMN FIC. HOLY SHIT I'M PSYCHED FOR THIS.

Man I've never been so damn excited about something in my entire freaking life . . . I suppose it's for the exact reasons I mentioned in the previous AN - this is gonna end up being my second completed fic, and the only up-to-date one (meaning the only one with a good writing style rather than 'this happened and they did this'), and also the only completed fic I actually want to give a fuck about.

OH MY GOD I'M SO EXCITED.

Anywho, moving on, we're gonna get straight into this. Regardless of how much content I actually write, I'm gonna be giving this chapter the title of 'the explanation chapter', because that's basically the main bit of what goes on in here.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

The command centre in HQ had a second Core. It was typically inactive except for special occasions, such as today, to allow the four leaders of the Underground NetBattlers to speak with both operators and Navis. Unfortunately large Navis such as Mythril were forced to stay inside their PETs, but it didn't seem like ProtoMan minded much - Mythril was still after his 'shiny hair'.

Kris was in the middle of the platform, facing Chaud, ProtoMan, Zoet, Virus, Flight, Lan and MegaMan. To her left was Gunter, standing casually yet somehow managing to look like a soldier, and to her right were Roahm and Arin. Their Navis stood behind them at the edge of the platform (Mythril was on the transmission screen on the curved window overlooking the Historical District).

"Well," Kris began, "I suppose congratulations are in order. It's a little late, I know, considering it's already been four days since the Scourge's attempt to destroy the city, but you three kids and your Navis behaved excellently. Even if two of you weren't supposed to be there . . ."

She glanced sternly at Lan, who coughed and looked at his feet. MegaMan sighed, though he had an amused smile on his face.

"You kids single-handedly took down the biggest threat to this city since the original bombing decades ago," Kris went on. "And for that, I congratulate all of you. Unfortunately I can't give you medals or anything, because the public doesn't even know the full story, but I'd like you all to know that, to those who do know the full story, you're heroes."

Zoet rolled her eyes.

"Yes, Zoet, heroes - get used to it," Kris said, amused.

ProtoMan raised his hand.

"No need to raise your hand, we're not in school," Kris told him. "What is it?"

"I wanted to ask exactly what happened to the Scourge," ProtoMan said. He cleared his throat a little awkwardly. "After I . . . buried the entire cavern."

"You didn't bury the _entire_ cavern, otherwise this lot wouldn't have been able to get out," Roahm corrected him. "The Scourge was killed in the rockfalls."

ProtoMan looked torn between guilt and relief. Chaud put a hand on his arm, the only comfort he could offer, and ProtoMan flashed him a small but grateful smile.

"Normally this would be a huge problem, as it means we can't hand him over to the appropriate authorities and anyone he may or may not have been working with or for would also remain completely unknown," Kris said. "But luckily for us, his biggest asset just so happened to desert him when he needed it the most - and it came straight to us."

The group of seven perked up when she gestured toward the Core on the ceiling. It flashed erratically, and a moment later, Virtue and Vice had materialised between them all. Virtue bowed their head in greeting, and Vice, looking distinctly awkward, waved.

"Vice went searching for Virtue the moment it got away from the Scourge," Kris explained, smiling at the muted copy of Virtue. "Virtue was with Gunter and Racket at the time, and they thought it was trying to attack Virtue again, but it explained the situation - and offered its help."

"Which mainly involved handing over control of the VR system back to Virtue," Gunter took up the explanation next. "But Virtue asked Vice to help shut it down."

"The VR system had been overloaded," Virtue said, turning their head slightly to glance at their copy. "The Scourge's use of it - covering the entire city - was something that it was not designed for. Viruses materialising by the hundreds did not help either. I needed a second Navi to help control the system, as I could not manage by myself. It took quite a while, and I apologise for being unable to shut it down before the Scourge attacked you children and the Hikaris."

 **"I also apologise for not realising Mas . . . the Scourge's true intentions,"** Vice added quietly. It wasn't looking at anyone. **"He merely expressed his desire to see that control of the net be given to him, and he pursuaded me that destroying the city would give him the control he wished for. I did not know he wished to destroy the net entirely. Nor did I realise he did not care for me . . ."**

"Well, he's not around anymore, so you don't need to worry about him," Arin told it brightly. She looked at Chaud and the others. "Vice has decided to sign up with us - not as a Navi operative, but as a sort of bodyguard for Virtue. What with all the chaos, there were a lot of criminals who took advantage of it, especially when they realised they could materialise their own Navis and viruses. They probably don't know exactly what's capable of such a thing, but no doubt there are some determined individuals who'll try and break into our network to get at the VR system."

 **"Arin has kindly removed the data that allowed me to partially control the VR system, so I am now a combat-Navi once again,"** Vice said. It sounded a little more cheerful at that.

"That's good to know," Flight told it, grinning. "So it looks like we'll be seeing you around a lot, then!"

"I look forward to any interesting conversations we may have," Virus said.

 **"I do not know if I am able to provide anything of interest, but I will certainly do my best in my new life,"** Vice replied.

Virtue and Vice bowed in unison, and then vanished back into the Core above their heads.

"Vice told us everything it knew, which was almost everything anyway," Kris went on, after they'd gone. "Have any of you ever heard of a man called Dr. Wily?"

"Don't tell me he was behind all this!" Lan exclaimed, exasperated.

Kris raised an eyebrow at his outburst. "No, not directly," she replied. "But it seems that this Dr. Wily person was the idol that the Scourge was babbling about. Apparently he found the doctor's work very interesting, and took his ideals on as his own. Dr. Wily also founded a criminal organisation known as World Three, which I guess the Scourge also wanted to copy, and he was attempting to set up an organisation similar to it - a spiritual successor, if you would, known as World Four."

"Does that mean there's more idiots like him out there?" Zoet asked, not looking too happy about the idea.

"Oh, no, definitely not - he'd only come up with the idea so far. I suppose the Scourge was waiting until he'd destroyed the city to announce his organisation, and then he'd get some criminals or whoever to join once they saw what he could do," Kris answered. "Luckily his ideas will never see the light of the Sun Pyramids - or the natural sun, even - so World Four will never get to have a shot at world domination or whatever it is that most criminal organisations go for these days."

"We also discovered, upon going through some of the files that survived the rockfalls, a few interesting things," Roahm said. "Woodchip had to decode quite a bit of it, but it looks like the Scourge was directly responsible for that Inky attack a few weeks ago. We thought it was strange that two Inkys would make a nest in the same network, but there was no evidence to show that it had been human or Navi intervention that had caused it to happen. Until we found the Scourge's files, that is."

"Why would he try and delete an entire Area of a network?" MegaMan wondered. "I mean, I'd understand if it was something like Navi creation, but the data-bone reconstruction room isn't really that important. There are plenty of other places at the Navi Research Labs that he could've sent those Inkys into."

"That also comes back to Dr. Wily," Kris said. "He told you all that he was capturing the Hikari family to get revenge for his idol, correct?" They all nodded. "Well, that Inky attack seemed to be something similar. We're not sure, but maybe he thought that, by deleting the Navi created by the famous Dr. Yuichiro Hikari and given to his son Lan Hikari, he would hurt the family that Dr. Wily hated so much. And it also seems that he was related the various thefts in the marina."

"You're shitting me," Zoet deadpanned.

"Unfortunately, no," Kris replied, completely serious. "The thief was working alone, we know that much, but he was going to sell everything he'd stolen to the highest bidder - and that bidder, as we discovered from the files Woodchip managed to decode, turned out to be the Scourge. It looked like he was planning an attack on the marina as well, but luckily his plans never got that far, and even he couldn't manage to stretch the VR system to cover that much ground."

"I am _so_ glad that lunatic is dead," Flight muttered.

"So am I," Arin agreed with a tired sigh. "It's a horrible thing to say about your own brother, I know, but . . . he was barely human anyway. Willing to murder millions of people for the sake of publicity or whatever he was going for . . . Lunatic is too tame a word."

"But you kids took down that lunatic, and without any injuries to boot," Roahm said, giving them a respectful nod.

When he mentioned injuries, Chaud half-consciously traced the bandages wrapped carefully around his neck.

Roahm noticed this. "Well, hardly any injuries," he corrected himself. "And Dr. Hikari and his wife were a _little_ injured when they got kidnapped . . . Oh, you know what I mean."

"If it's any comfort," Gunter told Chaud, "you'll have a cool scar."

"And what do I tell people when they ask about it?" Chaud wondered, eyebrow raised. "'I got captured by a madman and held at scythe-point by a virus that looks like Death'?"

"It's all in the presentation!" Arin exclaimed, throwing her arms out wide. Roahm ducked to avoid getting hit.

" . . . You're weird," Chaud informed her.

"I embrace my lunacy," Arin replied happily. "As should you. Zoet told me you make a very good dancer."

Chaud groaned and ignored Lan's snigger.

 **oooo**

"Twins," Zoet echoed, squinting at Lan.

After that scene in the command centre, Zoet had led the way back to her common room. Their Navis had returned to their PETs automatically as soon as they'd left the room, so it had just been the three of them walking, but as soon as they'd gotten into the common room all three of them had jacked their Navis into the monitor.

Zoet had wondered offhandedly about some comments that Lan and MegaMan had made during their adventure a few days ago. Lan had decided that she was trustworthy - and the fact that she'd helped rescue his parents was probably the biggest deciding factor to this - and had told her the full story.

"Yep," Lan replied. "His human name was Hub - he was my older twin, but he died when he was just a year old."

"From a heart condition known as HBD," MegaMan added. "Otherwise referred to as Heart Beat Disorder."

"And you died from it?" Zoet looked at MegaMan and then back at Lan. "Huh. So that explains why MegaMan calls your parents Mom and Dad. They're also _his_ mom and dad."

"That's right," Lan agreed. He glared at her suddenly. "If you think it's weird that my NetNavi is also my twin brother-"

"You're talking to the girl with a half-virus Navi, I don't give a shit that your Navi is your dead twin brother," Zoet interrupted. "Everyone here has a weird Navi."

"I don't," Chaud said.

"Whatever you say, skunk-boy."

"I hate you," Chaud informed her.

"I'm weeping from depression," Zoet deadpanned.

Lan glanced between them. "You guys . . . don't really act like friends," he noted. "You insult each other a lot. And you _argue_ a lot."

"Oh, no, that's the mark of true friendship," Zoet explained flippantly. "See, friendship is based on how much you can insult each other and still wanna chill with them. Me and this dumbass half-albino piece of shit here are besties."

"Lucky me," Chaud sighed. Then he frowned. "Half-albino?"

"I can honestly say I've never heard anything like that before," Lan said. "I thought friends were supposed to be nice to each other."

MegaMan coughed something that sounded suspiciously like 'Maylu'.

Lan ignored his brother and focused on Zoet. "So . . . what about me?" he asked curiously. "Do you consider me a friend?"

"I've known you for all of five days," Zoet replied scathingly.

"Yeah, but Chaud told me it only took you a week to admit the two of you were friends," Lan said.

Zoet glared at Chaud. Chaud just shrugged. It was true anyway.

"Fine, whatever," Zoet sighed, turning back to Lan. "Congratulations, you have the honour of being my second human friend."

"Great!" Lan exclaimed happily. "So if you insult me, and I insult you back-"

"I'll throw you off the highest cliff I can find," Zoet said.

"But- but you let Chaud-"

"He's different. He's not a complete idiot."

"I'm not a-"

"Who tagged along despite being told explicably not to?"

"Zoet-"

"Who almost fell into the spiky pit of death before confirming his theory?"

"But-"

"You," Zoet said. "That would be you. If you ever insult me I'll hunt you down and eat your skin for supper."

Lan promptly stopped complaining.

 **oooo**

"Your operator is terrifying," MegaMan said to Virus and Flight.

Far from being offended, the two just shrugged and nodded. ProtoMan had been around here long enough to know that they both found it extremely amusing whenever people were terrified by Zoet.

"That's fair, she is quite a violent human," Flight admitted. "But enough about that. So, you're part-human, eh?"

"Well, sort of," MegaMan replied. "It's more that I have my original human DNA inside my digital body, but I'm definitely a NetNavi. It can't be as strange as being literally half-virus, though."

"It was quite strange at first, yes," Virus agreed, "but I have grown used to the changes the virus data has done to my body. It is useful in most cases, in fact."

MegaMan looked at it for a moment, thinking something over. Then he evidently decided to do whatever it was he was thinking about.

"What were you like before you became half-virus?" he asked.

ProtoMan looked at Virus. He had been wondering that too, ever since Zoet and Flight had told him and Chaud how it had become the way it was now, but he hadn't wanted to offend or upset it. But MegaMan was sort of a kindred spirit, so maybe it wouldn't mind the question coming from him.

"I was a cat," Virus replied. "Jackal is a jackal, Flight is a bird, and I was a cat. All three of us are based on ancient Savaron legends and myths."

"If you were a cat," ProtoMan dared to ask, "why do you have bird feet?"

Virus looked at him, and then turned its head down toward its feet.

" . . . I do not know," it admitted.

"Hey, don't ask me, I never thought about this before either," Flight said when ProtoMan and MegaMan turned to her for an explanation next.

 **oooo**

Zoet came with them to the Historical Station and stayed on the tram until they got to the Jungle Station. She raised a hand in goodbye as the tram went off again, heading for the Haven Station next.

"So, you still gonna go to HQ tomorrow?" Lan asked Chaud after a minute or two of peaceful quiet.

Chaud glanced at him. "Uh, yes?" he replied. "We're still on clean-up duty, they need everyone to help out."

"I thought Saturdays were your days off," Lan said, frowning.

"Well, they're supposed to be, but like I said, they need everyone. The viruses did a lot of damage, not to mention we're still trying to figure out what to do with the Scourge's base."

Lan gave him a sideways look. "You've been there again?" he asked.

"Well, yeah. Why?"

"The spiders," Lan reminded him. "There was that whole tunnel full of them - I'm not an idiot, you know, no matter what Zoet says. You freaked out back then."

"Those . . . _things_ . . . got cleared out," Chaud told him, shuddering a little at the memory of all the spiders crawling _everywhere_. "I made sure not to go anywhere near that tunnel until every single spider was gone."

"Which was kind of a problem, because Zoet was busy with bomb-duty," ProtoMan apparently felt the need to add. "Vice also told us where to find every single one of the bombs - luckily they were remote-controlled via a switch inside the base, so none of them went off when the two-day time-limit was up. But of course, with Zoet busy, that meant Chaud was the only one who could show people where the base was . . ."

"You could've done it, you've got a copy of the map Virus made," Chaud grumbled.

"Yes, but it's very difficult to direct people when I'm not physically right next to them in a dark tunnel system," ProtoMan replied sarcastically.

"Bah, you would've managed. Somehow. . . . Probably."

Chaud shook his head and decided to change the subject before anything uncomfortable could happen.

"How's it been going at the Research Labs, anyway?" he asked Lan.

Lan immediately perked up, which was a good sign. "Dad told me they've almost got a method to fix MegaMan's spine!" he said happily. "Just a few more days and they'll be able to get it done. It'll probably take a few more days to actually fix MegaMan, but that just means they're being really careful, right?"

"Right," Chaud agreed.

 **OOOOOO**

This chapter ended up being a lot shorter than I thought it would, but it's more a cool-down chapter before we get into the epilogue.

So, yeah, turns out the Inky incident was the Scourge's fault. That actually was planned, although the reason for him sending the Inkys in to attack and destroy the network took a bit of thinking about.

But yeah, anyway, next chapter is definitely gonna be the last one. Say hurrah to the epilogue when you read it, because I wanna make it good. I'm not sure if it'll be at all long, although the scenes I have planned for it may take a bit to write, so I'm not certain as to how long the epilogue'll end up being. It may end up as short as the prologue and this cool-down chapter, it may end up a bit longer, who knows.

Not even me, and I'm the idiot writing this! God, I love unpredictable stories. Occasionally.

Anywho.

The characters in this story - that is, the main characters - will, as of next chapter, have been in Nowhere City for about five or six weeks. This whole thing with the Scourge takes place about halfway through that, so everyone can chill from that lunatic for the next two or three weeks now.

Oh, and in case you're all wondering, the reason why I had the Scourge die from the rockfalls is because, basically, the dick deserved it. I think he may actually be one of the very few OCs I created that I actually ended up hating, because he's just not made to be at all redeemable or even remotely likeable. The only good thing that came out of his existence is the fact that Vice is now part of the Underground NetBattlers, and everyone got to spend some time with their Navis in the actual real world rather than just exclusively in the training room or in the command centre. But it was a bit of a double-edged sword since everything had gone to hell at that point.

The good news is I got to write ProtoMan carrying Chaud not once, but twice! And then technically three times because of that moment in the previous chapter when he just full-on grabs Chaud and dumps his scrawny little ass on that rock outta the way.

Funny thing actually, that's based on a theory I have about what happens during episode 18 of the _Beast_ season of the anime. There's this scene where Chaud and ProtoMan are in the middle of a fight, and then it cuts away to Maylu and some guys in a train station, and then when it goes back to Chaud and ProtoMan, suddenly Chaud's on this high walkway and ProtoMan's somewhere below him.

My theory for that scene is that ProtoMan grabbed Chaud and jumped up to the walkway, put him there for safety, and then jumped down to beat up the bad guys. So my scene with ProtoMan being his usual overprotective self is based on something that may or may not have happened in the anime.

Which I love, by the way. Chaud is adorable in the anime. So is ProtoMan, sometimes.

Read and review!


	31. Chapter 31 - Epilogue

Before we get started on the final (yay!) chapter of this fic, I wanted to explain a couple of things about how gameplay mechanics go into the story.

The first is battle chips - I can't remember exactly when it was, but a few chapters ago one of the characters (whether in dialogue or in the narration) mentioned something about battle chips needing to recharge before another use. That's how I think battle chips work in the _Battle Network_ games, and it explains why you can only use a battle chip once per battle but can get it back when that specific battle is over. There's a recharge period, which I've put into this story's mechanics. Stronger battle chips (such as Giga class chips or Virus's Rising Thunder chip) need a longer time to recharge.

The second is how I think the Elemental Tornadoes would work if they were real battle chips in the games.

I think they would work more or less in the same way that they do in the story, except instead of the Navi controlling where they go, the Tornadoes would appear three panels ahead of the player.

The Elec Tornado is the weakest, but also potentially the fastest, and by spamming the A button the player can speed it up and make it more powerful. It also still would have the electricity, which would attack certain panels at random with short blasts of electricity. If there's an enemy on the panel that the Elec Tornado lands on, it gets double damage.

Next is, obviously, the second-weakest - the Aqua Tornado. Water will whip out and attack any enemies on every single panel (this is kinda like the battle chip Air Spin) around it. Like with the Elec Tornado, it would also deal double damage to anything on the panel the Tornado lands on.

Heat Tornado works differently since it doesn't have a ranged attack and can't attack any other panels aside from the one it lands on. However, it can slow down enemies to the point where you can just hit them on your own, and if you land it on an enemy, the Heat Tornado can do some pretty decent damage.

Next to last is Wood Tornado, the most powerful Tornado. Like Heat Tornado it doesn't actually have much of a ranged attack, but it will crack every single panel on the battlefield (if there's already cracked panels, then those ones will instantly become holes). It does a lot of damage if the panel it lands on also has an enemy on it, and it also creates a sort of earthquake effect that causes the screen/battlefield to shake while it's on-screen. This makes it difficult for anything on the battlefield to move around.

And finally, the White Hurricane program advance. It works exactly like it does in the story - a massive white hurricane that you can choose the element of via a rapid-fire selection screen. It's also a screen-wide attack and hits everything except for you (since you're the one controlling it) on the battlefield, but only after you select an element. The elements you select will have the same effects that their Tornado versions have, but more wide-spread.

So, yeah. That's how I think battle chips work, and that's how I think my Elemental Tornado chips would work if they were in the game. Oooooh wait a second, I forgot about Ribbon Whip!

Okay, so Ribbon Whip is basically a red ribbon-like whip, as you all know. In the games, it would work similar to a Variable Sword, except it also has a circle-slash attack that can hit every single panel around the player if you can get the combo right.

That's basically all I wanted to say before I started the final chapter. I just wanted to explain it since I was just thinking about it.

I don't own _MegaMan Battle Network_ / _NT Warrior_ , on with the show!

 **OOOOOO**

ProtoMan stood with the other Electopian Navis in the network of the data-bone reconstruction room. They were waiting half-impatiently, watching the repair capsule that slowly rotated in front of them. This was it - the big day. Everyone had been waiting for this ever since they'd arrived in this city, and now the moment was finally here.

The repair capsule slid open with a gentle hiss, revealing MegaMan inside. Beside ProtoMan, Roll tightened her grip on the handles of his wheelchair program, just in case. They were _hoping_ , yes, but that didn't mean they would assume it would work the first time around.

MegaMan opened his eyes, coming slowly out of sleep-mode, and blinked at them all.

Then he glanced down at his legs, and took a deep breath as the repair capsule automatically lowered him to the network's floor.

It set him down on his feet gently, and then released him.

MegaMan stayed standing.

It took a few moments for it to register properly - everyone was in shock - but all of a sudden everyone was cheering loudly, and Roll abandoned the wheelchair program in favour of squeezing the hit points out of MegaMan. GutsMan had just broken down crying and blubbering, which was incredibly uncomfortable as he was standing on ProtoMan's other side and was attempting to use his hair as a tissue (ProtoMan swore he heard Chaud laughing. He was gonna kill that kid if he'd taken a picture). IceMan and Glide were thankfully a little more reserved, just limiting themselves to clapping and cheering.

Their operators, who were all gathered around the main monitor to watch properly, were also having their own celebrations. Yai and Maylu were hugging each other and jumping up and down, Dex was punching the air and screaming his delight, Tory was thankfully like his Navi and was only clapping and cheering, and Lan was chasing Chaud around to try and hug him.

ProtoMan quickly snapped a picture of the moment Lan managed to jump Chaud and they both tumbled to the ground. Just in case, you know.

MegaMan was beginning to take a few tentative steps forward, Roll holding his elbow to help him balance. Since he hadn't been on his feet for the past several weeks, it was slow-going, but he eventually made his way over to the group of celebrating Navis.

"Congratulations," ProtoMan said, yanking his hair out of GutsMan's grip. "How does it feel to be walking again?"

"Amazing," MegaMan replied, sporting a massive grin. "I feel like a whole new Navi."

"And the best part is," Roll added half-giddily, "they managed to figure out a way to reinforce his spine and his other data-bones, just in case! Now his data-bones aren't as liable to break!"

"Damn, there goes my plan for beating you next time we have a NetBattle," ProtoMan joked.

MegaMan laughed. Roll, however, puffed up her cheeks angrily.

"I hope you weren't actually planning on doing that!" she scolded ProtoMan, who stepped back when she jabbed a finger at his chest. "It's really cruel, you know, after everything he's been through!"

"I wasn't!" ProtoMan exclaimed. "I wasn't! I promise! It was a joke!"

"It had better be," Roll muttered darkly.

ProtoMan exchanged a glance with MegaMan. They both turned away to avoid Roll seeing their smirks.

GutsMan interrupted them by throwing himself at MegaMan's feet, still blubbering. ProtoMan quickly stepped away to avoid the large Navi using his hair as a tissue again.

"I promise I won't do anything like that ever again!" GutsMan sobbed. "Even if it means I won't get to battle you again, I swear I won't hurt you like that-"

"GutsMan, we cleared this up, you were never to blame," MegaMan said gently. "And you can still battle me, you know! I like battling with you, it's really fun!"

GutsMan sniffed loudly and looked up hopefully. "R-really?" he whimpered.

"Really," MegaMan replied.

A moment later, he yelped as GutsMan leapt up and half-crushed him in a giant bear hug.

"Good thing his data-bones are reinforced," ProtoMan remarked to Roll. She glared and punched his arm. "Ow!"

 **oooo**

Meanwhile, in the real world, Lan had finally let go of Chaud (who was grumbling something about ProtoMan and blackmail) and was now bouncing around his dad, mom and Professor Hestia excitedly.

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!" Lan cried rapidly. "He's great, he's fixed, he's okay!"

"Okay, okay, Lan - calm down!" Dad laughed. He wasn't making much of an effort to calm Lan down though, he looked just as excited, and was giving Mom a one-armed hug.

Mom had tears in her eyes, but she was far from sad. In fact, she looked like she also wanted to start bouncing around with Lan, and there was a grin almost as big as Lan's on her face.

"You did it, Yuichiro," she whispered, leaning against Dad.

" _We_ did it," he replied, with a grateful glance at Professor Hestia.

"Oh, think nothing of it!" Professor Hestia said, waving a hand dismissively. "It's the least we could do, to help fix your son. So, I assume you'll be leaving Nowhere after today?"

Lan paused in his bouncing and looked at Professor Hestia, and then turned his attention to his dad. "Are we?" he asked, slightly more subdued. He kinda liked it here, and he'd wanted to go around the city once again when MegaMan was fixed up.

"Well," Dad said, delaying his answer dramatically while he exchanged an amused conspiratorial glance with Mom, "about that . . ."

"We've decided to stay here for an extra week," Mom announced, raising her voice so that everyone else could hear as well.

Lan's friends stopped celebrating momentarily to take in this new information. And then they started yelling in delight again.

"This time it'll be a proper vacation," Dad said to Lan, laughing at the shocked and delighted expression on his son's face. "Whatever anyone wants to do, for seven whole days."

"YES!" Lan practically screamed. He jumped forward and hugged both of his parents, and then released them to rush over to his friends and join in with their celebration.

 **oooo**

The extra week that Mom and Dad promised them passed by very quickly, but it wasn't as though MegaMan and everyone else didn't have fun. Oh no, it was the exact opposite - and now that MegaMan was back on his feet, he could explore the different network Areas of Nowhere City to his heart's content. Somehow everything was a million times brighter, a lot more enjoyable, now that his spine had been fixed. He explored everywhere he could, his friends sticking close by and jabbering excitedly the entire time.

Halfway through their extended vacation, they visited a district that was less of a district and more of a battle area. It was called the Battle Dome - and Lan, Maylu, Dex, Tory and Yai all entered into a mini-tournament that happened to be going on that day. Chaud unfortunately still had duties with the Underground NetBattlers, but said that he would be asking for details about the tournament when he got back later on.

The mini-tournament was about five rounds of battles. Lan and MegaMan's first battle was in the Heat Stadium, which projected the battlefield into a lava stage (and boy was that a surprise, he hadn't been expecting the battlefield to change like that), and were up against a girl in her late teens with a silver Heel Navi who kept setting up rock walls all over the place.

They won, not without a lot of effort, and went on to the next round.

Their second battle was in the Aqua Stadium, against a man in his early twenties. His standard Navi wasn't very powerful but was extremely quick (not as quick as ProtoMan, or even one of Zoet's Navis, Flight), and was able to jump across the icefield that the battlefield became with little to no difficulties. Lan and MegaMan beat him by setting up a few holes and throwing some Snakes at him.

Next was the Elec Stadium, where the battlefield turned into something similar to a laser tag-themed stage. At first MegaMan had been worried about the bright beams of light bouncing everywhere, but after tripping into one, he found that the beams of light were just that - and was able to easily defeat his opponent, a bulky Navi belonging to a middle-aged man who seemed to be in the mini-tournament just to kill some time.

Their fourth battle was in the Wood Stadium and was actually against Yai and Glide. The battlefield turned into a mountainous forest area, which both Navis tried to use to their advantage, but with the amount of digital trees getting knocked down, the battle became all-out rather than hide-n-seek. With Yai's love of rare battle chips, the battle was very difficult to win as MegaMan had to constantly dodge high-powered attacks, but Lan gave him some good battle chips and even a Hyper Burst program advance that allowed him to take down Glide in a tiring victory.

And then came their fifth and final battle in the Null Stadium, which was the Battle Dome's version of the Sun Pyramid. They ended up competing against Maylu and Roll, who had beaten both Dex and Tory to get to the finals, and the battlefield became a spacious and creepy haunted house.

Their battle against Maylu and Roll ended up lasting for over half an hour. Everyone - the audience, the operators, and the Navis - were on the edges of their seats near-constantly, waiting for the moment when either MegaMan or Roll would gain the upper hand and defeat their opponent. Roll was difficult to beat with her amazing speed and her ability to summon any viruses she had found to fight on her side, but MegaMan thought that he was giving her just as much of a hard time beating him. He certainly wasn't about to pull his punches just because they were friends.

Eventually, with one last charged shot from a Buster Up'd Mega Buster, MegaMan finally managed to defeat Roll and win the mini-tournament.

"That was AWESOME!" Lan shouted after the mini-tournament's award ceremony, which gave the winner - Lan - four battle chips that none of the Electopians had ever heard of before. MegaMan couldn't wait to try them out.

"I can't believe I forgot about Buster Up," Maylu sighed to herself.

"Aw, don't worry, Maylu!" Roll tried to cheer up her operator. "When we battle MegaMan and Lan again, we'll beat them!"

Maylu looked more cheerful at that. "Yeah," she agreed.

"We won't be slacking off either, you know!" MegaMan reminded them.

"Yeah, if you guys battle us again, we'll _beat_ you again!" Lan exclaimed.

"What do you mean, _if_ we battle you again?" Maylu fumed. "Lan Hikari, what exactly are you implying?"

Lan paused awkwardly. "I-I just meant, uh . . ." He glanced at his PET, at MegaMan, for help.

"Hey, don't look at me, you're the one who said it," MegaMan said, holding his hands up and stepping away from the PET screen.

"Thanks a lot!" Lan complained.

 **oooo**

The final day of their time in Nowhere City had arrived, and Chaud had received an email from Kris telling him to come up to the command centre at HQ. He was puzzled as to why Kris would want him to go to the command centre, but he went up there anyway. Maybe he'd be officially discharged from the Underground NetBattlers or something?

All four leaders were there, along with Zoet, standing off to the side near Arin. Zoet was holding a grey box with a black ribbon tied around it to keep the lid on, but she had her usual look of boredom on her face, which was absolutely no help at all. The four leaders didn't look at all different either, there was no indication as to what was going on and Chaud, at this point, was beginning to suspect they wanted to wipe his memories clean or something. He wouldn't put it past them, they were all crazy (but then, so was he).

"You look worried," Kris commented as soon as he stopped in front of them.

"Are you gonna wipe my memories?" Chaud blurted out.

Kris blinked, and then sighed. "Gunter, please hit Arin and Roahm for me. They've been telling lies again," she said.

Gunter walked over behind Arin and Roahm and smacked both of them on the back of their heads.

"Thank you," Kris said, while Arin and Roahm groaned in pain. She turned back to Chaud. "No, we're not going to wipe your memories of us - that'd be slightly pointless, since you've been here this entire time so you could learn about us and vice versa. I told you to come here today because, well, this is your very last day in Nowhere City - and your very last day with the Underground NetBattlers."

She gestured to Zoet, who came forward and held out the box to Chaud. He took it with a questioning look at Zoet, who just shook her head with a smirk and went back to her place.

"Technically, you were never an official part of the Underground NetBattlers," Kris said to him. "This was never a permanent position, everyone knew that when you first came here. But I'm not ashamed to admit that we've all grown quite fond of you, Chaud."

"Damn straight," Arin said.

"Hear, hear!" Roahm cheered.

Gunter rolled his eyes, but he nodded his agreement.

Chaud glanced at Zoet, who stared back. "What?" she demanded. "You expect me to get mushy? Hell no, brat. You're my friend and that's it. No need for any sappy shit."

"Coming from you, that is sappy," he commented.

"Inside that box there is our farewell gift to you," Kris said, bringing his attention back to her. "I advise you not to open it until you're on your ship, but of course you're free to do with it as you will."

"And no take-backsies," Arin added, which made Chaud wonder just what in the hell was in the box.

He actually had the sudden absurd notion that they'd managed to find that PET with legs and had decided to give it to him as a gag gift or something. But then he dismissed the thought, because, while Arin and Roahm would probably think it would be hilarious, Kris and Gunter would never allow them to give him something so weird.

"And should you ever decide to come back to Nowhere City, even if you're not on Official business and you're just here for a vacation, you're always welcome to visit," Kris told him.

Chaud smiled. "Thank you," he said with feeling. "For everything."

"And thank _you_ for being you!" Arin exclaimed.

"Hey, don't forget about us!"

"Yes, we also wish to say goodbye."

Zoet brought out her PET and held it up so Chaud could see the screen. Flight and Virus were there, looking out at him - Flight was grinning, and Virus, as soon as it came into view, inclined its head toward him. Chaud brought out his own PET so ProtoMan could see them as well.

"Hey, catch you on the flip side, red-boy!" Flight called to ProtoMan. "We're working on getting those country-pass things you told us about."

"It is quite a lengthy process to apply for one, but we know it shall be worth it," Virus added.

"I already have one, just not for this country," ProtoMan said. "I'll see what I can do about that, it shouldn't take too long to get a pass for Savaro."

"See you, guys," Chaud said, speaking mostly to Zoet, Virus and Flight now.

"Ah, yes, the overused goodbye trope," Zoet muttered. "Damn it all, this really is a fucking video game, isn't it? Whatever. See you, you dumb chicken nugget."

"Bye!" Flight exclaimed, waving madly.

"Farewell," Virus said more sedately than its twin sister.

"Goodbye," ProtoMan said, with a smile.

 **oooo**

They left the city via the Gondola stations later in the evening. The sun - the natural sun, that is - was still high in the sky, but when they'd left the city, the Sun Pyramids had already begun to change colour from day to dusk.

"Man, I forgot how hot it is out here . . ." Lan muttered, scowling as he dragged his luggage up the walkway to the ship.

"I didn't," Chaud replied.

"Well, yeah, but you've actually been out here a couple of times - I haven't," Lan said. "Man, you get to do all the cool stuff . . ."

"It wasn't all cool," Chaud told him, remembering the horrible moment when that Inky had almost deleted ProtoMan.

Lan was clearly remembering that too, and he patted Chaud on the shoulder and went back to hauling his luggage up. Chaud hadn't really brought that much stuff with him, just enough to fill a couple of suitcases, so unlike Lan he didn't need two trips to take his stuff onto the ship. He decided to help out of pity when Lan started to struggle with the biggest bags.

Everyone put their luggage into their rooms (Chaud looked around his and sighed, already seeing the next few days being spent completely lost on the ship), and then went up to the deck to watch the now-hidden Nowhere City vanish from sight as they departed from the docks.

Lan and Chaud stood a little apart from everyone else - they both shared memories of the city that were more . . . well, memorable than anyone else's, except maybe for the adult Hikaris.

"Hey," Lan suddenly said, looking down at the dock as they slowly pulled away, "isn't that Arin? And Zoet?"

Chaud glanced down too, and spotted Arin and Zoet standing at the edge of the dock. Arin was wearing the goggles that were typically attached to her hat (those were her version of sunglasses when she was outside, then), while Zoet was wearing the sunglasses that Chaud had gotten her. They were both looking up at the ship, and when they spotted Chaud and Lan looking at them, they both raised their arms and waved.

"Why're they wearing sunglasses?" Lan wondered, as he and Chaud waved back.

"The people of Nowhere City aren't really used to natural sunlight, and it hurts their eyes," Chaud explained. "But Arin's wearing goggles, Lan, not sunglasses."

"Same difference, they look like sunglasses from here."

"HEY SKUNK-BOY!"

Chaud looked back down at Zoet.

"WHEN YOU GET BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY, I'LL TEACH YOU HOW TO PLAY _EXPLODING KITTENS_!" she shouted up at him. "OH, AND BY THE WAY - YOU'RE AN EIGHT!"

" . . . I understood none of that," Lan admitted, glancing at Chaud.

"I did," Chaud replied, smiling.

 **oooo**

Later, when the ship left the docks and Nowhere City and Savaro were far behind them, Chaud returned to his room and sat down on the bed. He looked at the grey box sitting innocently in the middle of the bed in front of him.

" . . . How much you wanna bet it's a gag and it's gonna explode in my face?" Chaud eventually wondered, glancing at ProtoMan. He'd set his PET on the nightstand so his Navi could see what was going on properly.

"It's very likely, considering who we got it from, but I don't think Kris would let them give you an exploding box as a farewell gift," ProtoMan replied. "Open it and see what's inside. Just . . . be careful about it."

"Thanks," Chaud deadpanned. ProtoMan just shrugged.

Chaud reached forward and pulled off the black ribbon wrapped around the box, and very, very carefully took the lid off. When nothing exploded, he let out a quiet sigh of relief, and placed the lid next to the box. Then he looked inside.

There was a note on top of what looked like a black mass of something that seemed almost like clothing. He took the note out first.

" _To Foreigner,_ " he read, " _our first and only foreign Shade. You were only with us for a short time, but we're all going to miss you. Here's a gift to help you remember us - use it well. From You-Know-Who._ "

"Voldemort?" ProtoMan wondered.

Chaud shot him an amused but exasperated look. He placed the note on top of the lid, and reached back into the box.

And pulled out the bodysuit of his Underground NetBattler battle suit. The gloves, boots, belt, packs and helmet were all underneath it, and Chaud could honestly be forgiven for gaping at the battle suit in pure shock.

" . . . I thought they said you couldn't keep it," ProtoMan said, voice hushed in awe.

"Guess they changed their minds," Chaud said, equally in awe. He put the bodysuit back into the box, stared at it for a moment, and then started to grin.

He looked at ProtoMan, who was also grinning.

"We're official Underground NetBattlers," ProtoMan said.

"Yep," Chaud replied.

 **OOOOOO**

AND SO IT ALL ENDS! Fucking hell, this fic was a monster to write, but dear god am I so damn happy I actually managed to finish it!

All of these fics that I start and say 'oh this'll be the second fic I ever finish, and the first one technically doesn't count because it sucks', and this one is the first one that's actually true for. _The Underground NetBattlers_ is now officially my second ever completed fic, and I fucking LOVE IT.

This chapter here is basically made up of various little epilogue-worthy moments, and I've managed to include all four of the main characters' POVs - the first was ProtoMan's, next was Lan's, then it was MegaMan, and Chaud took the rest of the chapter. I orginally planned for just Chaud to have the entire epilogue all to himself, but I thought it'd be a bit more symbolic if I split it between all four of these guys. Is symbolic the right word for this? I feel like it isn't, somehow.

I also wanted to say something about Chaud's character that I kinda forgot to in the first AN of this chapter. Basically, he kinda started to become a little bit OOC the moment he became my favourite character. But hey, that's fine, this is fanfiction, and if he's still relatively true to his original characterisation, then it's just me writing him in my own style.

There's also something else - I may, at some point, end up writing a fic full of one-shots called _System Error_. It's all mostly based on some headcanons and stuff that me and a Tumblr friend, Cinnamononions (who I call Cin), came up with. It features Chaud and ProtoMan as the main characters and focuses on stuff that me and Cin come up with for them, so if anyone's interested, you can go and check that out whenever I get the chapters up. I'll probably end up writing 'parts' for it, and then uploading those 'parts' together, rather than doing what I've done for this fic - that is, only upload it when it's fully complete.

The reason I'll be doing _System Error_ a little bit differently is because it's a one-shot series, and therefore the chapters won't have any particular structure and the story might not even end up being complete, it'll just sort of hang around with a bunch of different plots in various 'parts'. So I'll upload it in 'parts'.

But enough of that, we're finally finished with _The Underground NetBattlers_ , and I'm fucking stoked to see this finally go onto the internet! Can't believe I actually managed to complete a fic this big.

And now, for the very last time in this story . . .

Read and review! RennyBanette, OUT!


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